Empire of Zero
by dutchsoldier
Summary: What if Louise does summon Saito, however not only a different version of him but also one that had allies nearby who were also taken by the summons? Not the best summary, mostly because I didn't want to spoil the entire first chapter with it, the story will feature a Louise that will take her role as the leader she wasn't in canon, or die trying to do so.
1. A glimmer of hope in the darkness

Empire of Zero

 **Ok, so the first part of this Author's note is for the people interested in my other story, 'Avengers of Mass Effect'. If you are not interested in that story, skip to the next bold line.** Before anyone asks, no I have not stopped writing for that one, I actually have close to 25k words written for it. The problem is that those words are spread out over a time line (already 9k words and at the moment of writing this I've only just arrived at the 2040's) a ship list chapter (which is currently at 8k and barely more than halfway finished), a faction exposition chapter (which is at roughly 2k words right now) and roughly 6k in words written on the non-space parts of the battle for Shanxi.

The problem is that I cannot use either the faction exposition chapter or the battle for Shanxi part, without a complete time-line and ship list. The problem with completing the Time-Line and ship list, is mainly balancing. You see I already began writing the start of the ship list shortly after I was finished with chapter 2 of the 'Avengers of Mass Effect' story, however back then I only had the information about Mass Effect from playing the third game a long time ago on a friends account after he got tired of it and gave it to me.

Unlike most players, I actually thought the whole late game scenario about the Reapers being controlled by an artificial intelligence that despite its age was acting like a child not understanding that there were always other options to solve problems, and that a large number of factors were involved in pretty much every possible scenario very interesting. This because the explanation given actually made more sense then whatever else I could think of at the time about why the Reapers acted the way they did instead of choosing actually more efficient methods to solve whatever issue they found in everything.

The problem behind this is that while I knew Mass Effect ships weren't very strong, I didn't know just how weak they were in comparison to other ships, and even recent developments in weapon technology. Especially the Mass Effect shit humanity was using at first contact with the Turians. I've ranted about this in one of the chapters there, but apparently for some reason in 2149 we would downgrade our space-vessel weapon arsenal and civilian technology to things that are in many cases actually only slightly more efficient/higher quality then what we have right now, in November 2018. Another thing people seem to misunderstand is the strength of Mass Effect ground weaponry and defences… they are literally only as strong as, hell most of the time weaker than, modern gunpowder weapons. Especially the ones used in the first contact war.

The only advantages they have over current day high-class gunpowder weapons is how easy it is to resupply and how fast the things shoot. Those are literally their only advantages. Hell, the Eezo causing the weapon to give off a large amount of light and heat when firing makes them easy pickings for snipers armed with heat-vision goggles while the stealth cloaks also generate a lot of heat and as far as is told in the games, there is no real solution to this, so anyone with the heat vision settings on their gear turned on should be able to find them much more easily than that they would be able to find somebody that isn't using a tactical cloak at all.

Because of this lacking firepower and easy visibility, the shields are also a lot less important than you would think, since most of the people there seem to depend on shields alone, and these aren't the near invulnerable Star Wars or Halo shields that are near impossible to break without specialized gear or tactics, instead they break pretty fast. Hell anything going below 50 or so kilometres an hour doesn't even activate them and since their vehicles have no armour, somebody attaching a sticky grenade to their tanks or setting up mines will kill the things extremely fast. However the simple fact that both they and their vehicles have shields at all makes people act much more rashly then advisable in a combat situation.

I could see no conceivable reasoning behind this, and thus am now stuck a bit on how powerful I need to make the Mass Effect ships of the Systems Alliance and other Earth nations at said first contact, because it needs to be good enough that they would in a number of fields actually have a good reason to take it over their current technology, but weaker enough that if put in combination with their advantages in fields not related to Mass Effect fields, their defence fleet above Shanxi won't butcher the Turians even though they are also supported by a very accomplished mad scientist, 2 gods and 1 super soldier.

However I also need to keep the Turian ships weak enough that with 30 to 40 years of development afterwards the Reapers are actually still a threat to the Turians in the sense that battles won't become losing Turian Frigates to take down equal numbers Capital ship Reapers, which because of the Galaxy united outproducing the Reapers by far would make it a bloody and relatively long war of attrition that the Galaxy would win eventually even if they didn't change a single damn thing about how they handled themselves during the entire war from the moment it started.

With the fact that the Protheans, who were more advanced then the current galaxy actually lost to the Reapers, I will have to balance everything a lot. And for those who want a HFY fanfiction… just go read a true to canon of both series Mass Effect/ Halo crossover, a single frigate of the UNSC can literally take on a small fleet of council vessels even when it includes a Mass Effect 'Dreadnought' and up to two dozen other ships, even before the UNSC ships get shielding, and somehow that single frigate would be the one with a higher chance to win the battle. Simply because anything short of the Dreadnought itself firing it's main weapon at the UNSC ships the Citadel group would have no conceivable way to actually damage the UNSC ship… everything else would only cause slight dents in the armour. **Here ends the part of the Author's note covering 'Avengers of Mass Effect'.**

 **Here starts an explanation about this story, it is somewhat long so if you are uninterested in the why and how beforehand and just want to read the story, skip to the next bold line.  
** Ok, now onto the Authors note for this story. As you could see in the description this story is going to be a cross-over between the game Empire Total War 1 and the tv show/anime series Familiar De Zero (Zero No Tsukaima). And no, I'm not simply picking up a soldier of Empire Total War or something like that, which while interesting, is something I would like to write one-shots about, not a full story. This simply because if you pick a soldier, it depends largely on what country they are from to what they would do. If you pick one from Great Britain, the United Provinces, the Thirteen Colonies or something like that, you would have a 49/49 chance to get either a rebellion or a familiar sentenced to death, with the 2% chance for all other options put together. Whichever one actually happens mainly depending on what level of competence and charisma you give to the soldier that will be summoned.

On the other hand if you pick one from the Spanish, Spanish protectorates or from the Italian city-states, you'll most likely get somebody that goes into a rage at seeing all those mages and kills one or at the very most two of the children soon after he arrives, then gets himself killed by either Colbert barbecuing him with a wall of fire or Louise firing an explosion spell in self-defence. With other nations you get different things, but they aren't what I want to write a whole story about, though I might just do a one-shot series about this after I figure out how to complete the Avengers of Mass Effect chapters and get somewhat farther into this story.

Now what I'll do in this story is somewhat different, in the way that Saito does get summoned, but while playing Empire: Total War as a beta-tester for some kind of experimental ground-breaking new version of VR gaming sets, and that he's playing with/against a few others. With this however, I'll also add that I'm adding some new units that can be recruited, to this simulation, mainly to guide the plot a bit more to something resembling the actual title.

And no I haven't got any plans of making Louise rise in rebellion to become the new self-appointed Empress of Tristain(yet), its more that I've seen relatively few stories where Louise actually becomes the leader of a large scale movement/army even though as a high-ranking member of nobility with some combat experience and a much higher level of competence at pretty much everything not related to regular magic than 98% of the nobility seen in the series that is extremely strange.

Her fanatical loyalty to both the country and its ruling family in combination with her families position in nobility alone should have guaranteed her a high-ranking position somewhere in any actual medieval/ early renaissance era country, add to that her work ethic and the fact that her main magical ability causes her to be able to function as a highly mobile, talking and intelligent artillery piece on a battlefield and her abilities in the fields of administration would cause her to be an excellent minister of finance, high ranking tax collector or even the head of any kind of advisory group for the Princess/Queen. Or really even multiple of them at once if they need somebody that's a jack of all trades.

There is a relatively good reasoning why this wasn't explored fully in the series itself, but I do not understand why so few people explore any of it in fanfiction. One big warning, because of these themes, the story will have a more serious note to it then most of the Tsukaima No Zero fanfictions seem to have, though there will be some humorous moments here and there still. **Here ends the explanation about the why behind me writing this story and what the general theme of it will be.**

Anyway as most of you probably want to start on the story and not read any more of me talking about this, here is the disclaimer:

 **I do not own anything related to the Zero No Tsukaima franchise, nor will I probably ever do so, with the only thing I own in this story being the OC's I introduce. For the Total War side of this, I only own a digital copy from Empire Total War (plus most of its DLC's) and a CD Gold version of Rome Total War, and a such I do not own the actual rights to anything, that is in the capable hands of Creative Assembly (though I was at one point not so sure about that capability when they made Rome Total War 2, but hey, they managed to do much better again afterwards, so they're still the most capable at handling strategy games in my opinion) I also do not make any money off of this story in any way, shape or form.  
**

 _''Language''=_ Text written like this means that it is a language not fully understood by the person who's POV is being used (for instance while Saito might know a few words French, he doesn't understand the full language, meaning that anything said in it will be written in cursive if seen from his perspective, while he fully understands English, Korean, Japanese and a few other languages which will as such just be written down as English.)  
Language= Text written like this a form of mental communication. For instance the whole VR to reality transition will cause the generals to develop slight psychic bonds with their troops. Not hive-mind level psychic connection, but closer to the level of Jean Grey connecting all X-men team members through their minds connection.

 **Language= Text usually involving someone trying to forcibly have another person either submit or perform an action through active mind control. Will also be used by both sides during both such a battle if it causes supernatural powers to be exhibited in the outside world and during a supernaturally powerful feat of magic. With supernatural powers I don't mean somewhat powerful regular magic but more like as in close to Godlike levels of supernatural power (like say teleporting a large group of people between worlds while also granting a large number of them actual physical bodies and life).**

Chapter 1: A glimmer of hope in the darkness

Time and Date: 12.00 Local Time, 1st of November 2018, Planet: Earth, Country: Great Britain, Location: 10 kilometres out of London, Creative Assembly VR testing headquarters

Saito POV

Ok so lets see, what nation and units should I select for this match. ''Hey boss, where there any units we haven't tested extensively yet? With the amount of testing we have done in the past few weeks on if the handling system of controlling both your own player body and the army units functions correctly, we might as well hit two birds with one stone and immediately test on how some of the new units scale up against older ones when using that system.''

''Not too bad of an idea actually, I like it. Ok so some of the ones we have yet to test are the new units from the United Provinces faction, to be more specific the blue guard dragoons, the settler infantry and the marine infantry.'' As soon as he finished I heard Piet say ''Can I get that one? I always loved to play that faction.'' Brandon answered pretty quickly ''Sure, as long as the others don't have a problem with it, though it is on the condition that you choose the dragoons as your general unit, we're not sure if the kinks with that have been worked out fully yet.'' Nobody had a real problem with it, and he got the United Provinces as his faction for this match.

''Ok the next faction we have new units of that need testing is the British Empire, with them it's the royal marines, marine infantry and settler infantry. For the record I wish to say immediately, the settler infantry from each nation has the same stats in combat, however they all have different special abilities both during battles and on the campaign maps. Marine infantry however is for both the Dutch and the British the same, though ones from other countries are slightly different.'' Hmm those royal marines might be interesting, I'll choose the British. Will be fun to learn what each factions settler infantry and marine infantry actually do. ''Hey boss, I'll take the British for this battle, at least if the others don't mind?'' Like with Piet, nobody really had a problem with it.

''Ok, that's two down with two more to go. The other two we still have units to do more tests for today are from the factions France and the Italian States. For the French it's the royal musketeers, settler infantry and marine infantry. For the Italian States it's the papal guard, papal guard dragoons and religious volunteers. Who wants which one?'' Wait a second, what? ''Since when are the Italian states even a playable faction in the game?''

''Oh in the main game they aren't, but we decided we needed to give them some specialised units like we did with the other non-playable factions, simply so that they would actually be a more dangerous force to fight against. They will also appear as actual playable factions in some new DLC's we'll add to the VR version of the game. You'll test some of those next week.'' Ok, a bit strange but not really a problem. A nice touch really, now they will almost certainly be a more interesting than they were before this.

''I'll take the Italian States, always nice to try something new, if Pierre doesn't mind?'' Steve does always like to try new things, not a bad quality really. Though the fact that most of the time it is a cover to hide his pain behind instead of genuine interest is sad to think about. ''I don't mind _mon ami_ (my friend), wanted to try how it felt to be in a 18th century French military uniform in VR anyways. We always did have a very good sense of style, even back then.''

Ah Pierre, the ex-military giant from France that was always ready to get into an argument to defend it. Not really a problem for me, since I understood him and would probably act the same if somebody decided to insult Japan for no reason in front of me. Now that I think about it, most of the other candidates in this VR project including my three colleagues here are giants in comparison to me, with me being 173 centimetres or 5 foot 8 inches as the locals would call it.

All three of the others are roughly 190 centimetres or 6 foot 3 inches, maybe they wanted to be certain the things worked as well on very tall people as on somewhat more average height from me and relatively short people with Felicia and Arnold from testing group 6? Food for thought after we're finished with this, though I am looking forward to how the battle will go with these new units and what those so called 'special abilities' of the settler infantry are.

''Ok boss so boss to recap, the battle was a two vs two of me and Piet against Pierre and Steve right with all of us now using at least one of each of the new units and only 1 artillery unit max and a 7k budget limit? With both sides first getting 5 minutes to adjust to the feeling of being in a VR generated body and command seat of a mentally connected army again like we've done for the past two weeks?''

''Yes Saito, that was the plan.'' Brandon replied ''ok so everyone ready to enter the VR chairs?'' ''Sir Yes Sir!'' we answer collectively, causing him to laugh ''No need to be smartasses about it guys. Let's get this show on the road.''

Roughly 1 hour earlier

Time and Date: 12.00 local time day of Water of the 12th week of 6000 A.B. (After Brimir), Country: Tristain, Location: Tristain Academy of Magic.

3rd person POV

A young looking girl walks out of the Headmaster's office at Tristain Academy of Magic, looking very troubled and visibly filled with self-loathing. Her torment isn't over yet however as she is confronted by someone she wished would just disappear from her life ''And Zero, did they throw you out yet? Did they finally realize that you aren't a proper true mage?'' The girl, though annoyed by the mockery, doesn't seem to have the energy to really reply to it ''No Kirche, they decided that it was the teachers mistake, not mine, with that she should have been warned by my extreme reluctance to comply and the warnings given by all other students, so I will be let off with only having to clean up the classroom as punishment.''

Both of the other girls, one now known as Kirche with the others name still being a mystery, seemed shocked and extremely annoyed at this fact ''What! Why in Brimir's name would they let you get away with this Vallière! We all know that you won't summon anything during the Familiar Summoning Ritual this afternoon anyways, so why do they even bother keeping you here until then?'' This seems to finally awaken a fire in the girl whom we now know is called Louise ''Just you watch Montmorency the Flood, I will summon a familiar many times the superior to either of yours, a dragon or something even more capable! That I swear or my name is not Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière!'' After this she storms away from the two, presumably to be alone to prepare herself for the summoning.

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Louise POV  
Oh Brimir why did I do that! 'A dragon or something even more capable!', yeah right, the only thing I'm likely to summon is a giant explosion and maybe some dust. As I open the door to my room I feel like I'm left with only a single option, pray as much as possible before going there and hoping for the best. The moment my door is closed I fall to my knees before my bed and start repeating a single prayer ''Lord Brimir, I know my sins to magic are many, but I beg for your assistance, please let me summon something, anything to prove myself a real mage, no matter what it is as long as it is something!''

.

(?) POV  
Descendant of Brimir in distress, situation in Halkeginia overall worse than expected, child will need capable guardians. Searching for options, no, no, no. Wait. Yes, this is close to perfect. Will promote her belief in herself, give leadership and diplomatic experience, potential training in the art of war but most importantly, a capable army to guard her and enable her to survive long enough to become who this world needs her to be. This will be done, in the name of the creator we will succeed so his heir can lead the people of Halkeginia to victory!

.

Time and Date: 12.05 Local Time, 1st of November 2018, Planet: Earth, Country: Great Britain, Location: 10 kilometres out of London, Creative Assembly VR testing headquarters, specifically the VR chamber.

Saito POV

Hmm ok, lets see, the settler infantry costs 700 per unit, for their regular stats expensive but their abilities and high morale make them more then worth it, I'll take two of those. Royal marines are 1250 per unit, I'll also take one of those, I don't know the map yet so their ability might be somewhat useful, but while on the actual campaign map a multitude of them is more than worth it, but in here they aren't. I'll take a 24-Iber foot howitzer at 650. That's 3300 so far, let's see what I can scramble together from the remaining 3700.

One unit of Ferguson riflemen at 840, one unit of regular British line infantry at 1140, one British marines unit at 900 and a generals bodyguard unit at 800. Wait didn't all of those cost much less in the regular game. ''Ehm a question, why are the unit prices so high? Both in-game and in multiplayer combat all of these used to cost a lot less?''

The others made agreeing sounds, after which Brandon replied ''We just took the prices from the steam wiki for this one unlike the other fights because we need to determine if the prices for our new units are balanced in comparison to those base prices instead of the somewhat altered ones on the multiplayer of the regular original game.''

Ok with that question answered, which causes the prices to make much more sense, my army is complete. Even with them being so expensive relatively seen, due to the nature of how the VR works, if I want to use a cavalry unit as my command/general unit, it needs to be either some type of dragoon unit or a generals bodyguard unit, because of the simply fact that they give most of the same morale bonusses to my infantry troops as using an infantry unit general does while allowing for the mobile aspect of cavalry.

This is partially caused by the game but mostly by me, as my personal character, has a large amount of experience leading infantry into a victorious battle while being in either generals bodyguard type unit or a dragoon unit, and partially caused by the game as when fighting as infantry and in a slightly lesser form dragoons you get automatic bonuses for 'being down on the ground' with the men.

On the other hand if you have your command unit be a cavalry unit of any type or in again a lesser form the dragoon unit, you get a bonus for being part of 'the most elite branch of the army'. At least that's how the horseman in the game consider it according to the unit descriptions. ''By the way, is there a reason behind the Royal marines not having a historical or lore friendly description yet?'' Brandon seemed to think for a moment since there was no reply to my question for a moment, but afterwards he answered ''As far as I know the main reason is that we wanted to test first if their battlefield add-ons actually have an effect and if their ships actually consistently work at all on the campaign map.

You guys are literally the first ones to test these troops, unlike the settler infantry where some of them from other nations have already been tested and shown that the mechanics themselves work. If there is a yes to both those questions they will design a text for it, but right now we just have enough general information to give you a way to quickly consider if they are or aren't worth it recruiting.'' Reasonable answer, will be looking forward to what said description will say though. Might even get a chance to assist in creating it, which would be a really nice thing to work on.

''Okay so I see that everyone is done selecting their troops, I'll bring up the troops on your HUD's right now, after you've looked those over for a minute we'll start the deployment phase of the battle.'' Hmm ok so let's see, what did Piet choose as his units? Ok so 1 blue guard dragoon with an experience shiver as his general unit, understandable decision since nearly all of his fights in the past 2 weeks had him as the commander of a dragoon unit leading mostly infantry based armies as part of the vs tests. His other units are 1 settler infantry, 1 marine infantry, 1 blue guard infantry, 1 unit of 24 lber Foot Artillery and 1 riflemen unit. Hmm now we do have a slight problem of only our generals being cavalry units and also both our armies being quality focused groups instead of quantity, but we should be fine.

Now what do our opponents have in store for us? Ok this can be either very bad or very good, Pierre seems to have chosen the opposite direction from everyone else, with him going for an army with a large amount of cavalry. Pierre has a general bodyguard unit as his command unit, with 1 royal musketeer, 1 settler infantry, 1 marine infantry and 1 unit of régiments étrangers as his infantry units, with then 1 _gendarmerie_ , 1 _chevaux-légers_ and lastly 1 unit of _chasseurs à cheval_ as his cavalry detachment. The large amount of cavalry is somewhat understandable though, considering most of his fights have him as the commanding officer of extremely mobile armies, which are usually centred around a large amount of cavalry.

And then there is Steve with 1 unit of Papal guard dragoons, which is also his command unit, 1 unit of Papal guard infantry, 2 units of religious volunteers, 1 unit of rocket troops and lastly 1 unit of 24 lber-foot artillery. That rocket troop can be a problem, now we might be forced to advance against him instead of simply waiting him out. Hmm a bit strange for him to choose the dragoons as his command unit, normally he doesn't use any cavalry at all, but maybe he wanted his general to be more mobile this time? That would make some sense since it is now a larger battlefield then it has been at any time in the past two weeks. Though to be honest we're lucky its a land battle, if we had to do a naval one we would be wrecked with him being the only one with any actual positive traits solely meant for naval battle.

Hmm ok though now with this all visible there is one area where Piet and I have a large advantage, our light infantry, though sadly enough we won't be able to use that advantage to its fullest extent because of the large cavalry advantage that our opponents possess. Especially since we are going to be forced to be the attacking side since with that rocket troop and the fact that there is no time limit they could theoretically just wait us out while shelling us to hell with unguided rockets.

Luckily both Piet and I seem to have the same idea on where to deploy our troops, at the very edge of our territory, as close as possible to the opponents area. I send a message to Piet and he agrees to use our marine infantry to create a distraction while we use that time to position our artillery in such a way that it can actually target the opposing army if they have decided to position their forces too far into their lands to be hit by our artillery. While at the same time we position our settler infantry as such that in case they have positioned closer to perform a surprise all or nothing charge with their cavalry and infantry, we will have an easily defendable position to centre our formation around. We will need to target their cavalry immediately with our artillery if that happens though, considering they can otherwise just break through parts of our defensive formation with them and corner our units suited less for close quarters combat.

.

3rd Person

We switch to an eagle eye view of the battlefield, and see both sides prepared for battle in their personal formations. However while all test participants and are focused on the battlefield itself and their boss focuses on the participants biological readings, mostly on the neurological readings, nobody notices that a strange energy begins gathering in the chamber where the VR pods are located. When they finally do it will be too late to change anything about it.

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Time and Date: 13.05 local time day of Water of the 12th week of 6000 A.B. (After Brimir), Country: Tristain, Location: Tristain Academy of Magic.

Louise POV

Why did Zerbst have to do this to me, just why. I'm going to fail, my magic hasn't worked until now, how would it suddenly start working just because I made a ridiculous declaration about summoning a dragon or something better. I feel like I'm about to collapse right here and die just from the shame of this, just why!  
Suddenly a feeling of steel overtook her. No matter what, I'll see this through, I will summon a familiar that will utterly demolish all their ideas and estimations about this. I am a De La Vallière, we are the rule of steel given personification, the swords and shields of the kings and queens! No matter what, I'll prove worthy of Henrietta's trust and become her defender, even if the entire world is against it, I will succeed!

 **''My warriors that exists somewhere in this universe, my wise and powerful familiars, I summon thee to stand by your leader in her time of need, answer my call!''**

As I aim my wand and the circle starts glowing I feel more powerful then that I have ever been, it might be an extremely unusual call but I do not care, it feels right. Just then a green oval starts to form, at first it is roughly the size of a human being, but it grows fast until it is hundreds of metres wide and at least a dozen metres high, yes its working! Then it explodes, sending me back in a gust of wind.

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? POV, moments before Louise starts chanting

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The creator's heiress suddenly became much more steadfast, she seems much stronger but most importantly: raw magic started swirling around her, as if it could feel the storm this one is destined to one day become. Ok so I will not need to aid much there, just offer a slight bit of guidance to her without her knowing, this will most likely enhance the effect I had in mind greatly, lets see, I'll have ensure those warriors in that field are selected, even if they are without magic, such an army will almost certainly serve the heiress very well.

Ensure that the bodies of both the ones they become and the ones they are mixed together with both of them strengthening each-other, while the mind will be the one they are, with only knowledge of the ones they become added separately. And done. This should serve her well.

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3rd person POV

Like Louise had personally expected after that, most of her so called ''Peers'' started jeering, mocking her choice of words or her in their eyes inability with magic and her right to be called a member of Nobility. However, those of higher mental capacity then the ones currently mocking her and those with a better ability to sense magic were now looking at the smoke, staring at what she had summoned. Or to be more specific the 2 different groups of beings that she had summoned.

''Silence you idiots!'' came the shout from Professor Colbert, who now had his staff aimed at the veritable army that became more easily visible every second as the smoke started to thin and the dust started to fall back down to the ground. ''She did most certainly summon something, she summoned at least two armies that seem to be arrayed against each-other, potentially because they are about to fight each-other in a battle that we would be caught in as bystanders! Everyone retreat towards the castle, Montmorency alert the other teachers and the guards, Gramont summon golems and have them form a defensive line on my position to cover your retreat. Once you are closer to the school and they haven't attacked yet, retreat them to the school and have them hold the entrance.'' When nobody seemed to react he yelled ''Right now!''

After this they did act, with all students except for Louise, Tabitha and Kirche following his orders. The last three instead decided to stay with Colbert, Tabitha to gain more information on this situation, Louise to cover the retreat and lastly Kirche because she was simply very interested in how the professor had started acting and was always in for some more action in her life.

The Professor seemed to ready himself to argue with them, took one more look at the army on the opposing side of the field, and decided it was more important to be ready for an action of any kind from the groups towards them rather than start an argument he already knew he wouldn't win.

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Saito POV

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Ugh, what happened, the last thing I remember is setting up a defensive line and the next thing I know is hearing a voice.. what did it say again?  
/Flashback/ _''Mon guerriers qui est livre en un location dans la univers, mon familiar sage et puissant, vous est sommer pour la assistance de votre commandant en sa temps dire, répondre à mon appel!''_ Ok what the hell? I need to know if something is going wrong, this could be very bad ''Did you guys also just hear a voice saying something in what seemed to be French with a strange accent or is something wrong with one of my troops?'' I asked.

''You're not the only one, what was that about?'' Steve replies, followed by Piet ''I also heard it, and I can have this wrong but I think she said that she was 'summoning her warriors to her side in her dark hour' I think? Pierre, can you confirm or deny that and Brandon is this part of the simulation?'' Pierre immediately answered ''Close enough, she pretty much said ''My warriors that exist somewhere, I'm summoning you to my side to assist me in my time of need.''

Everything else were some strange mix of complements about our capabilities and declaring herself our leader.'' He seemed to want to say more but was interrupted by a panicked Brandon ''Log out of the simulation immediately, whatever the hell is happening is generating a strange energy centred in the VR room that has a high chance of having the same effect as an overdose of nuclear radiation!'' Shit! Ok so ''Aaah!'' Pain, oh god the damned pain! What the hell was that! /Flashback end/

Ok so that is what happened. Ugh, lets try standing up I might still be caught inside the VR room. Wait a second… this is not the VR room. Not by a long shot. This is an open field bordering on a forest, though our armies from the VR simulation are still here. Wait.. our armies from the VR simulation are still here even though we're somewhere completely different? This is Pierre to everyone that is still receiving it, tell your armies to stand down! We've been transported somewhere, I do not know where, but what I do know is that there is a group of humans with all kinds of supernatural creatures as pets of some sort relatively close by that are now retreating slowly towards a castle. One of these beings, I do not know whether the humans or the non-humans, is probably the cause of us being here, and might have had dark intentions with us, we need to form up together to defend ourselves.

He's right, we need to work together, let's hope that the troops will still listen to me. All troops of the British Empire, stand down! Do not engage the Italian or French troops, they are some of the few things we can recognize in this place we've been transported to, and possibly our only hope of survival lays into assisting each-other. Potential enemies are to our south-east, turn our formation in their direction and expect assistance from the United Provinces on our side of the defensive line, while the settler infantry will split, 1 unit remains with us and starts setting up our defences, one unit goes to where-ever the Italians form up and sets up defences for them.

While I mentally heard Piet and Steve give the same orders to their own soldiers, my forces replied in the open by yelling ''Sir, yes sir!'' and following my orders, shortly followed by a _''Jawel commandant!''_ and a _''Sì comandante!''_ being given by Piet's and Steve's forces respectively, since Pierre's had already been informed before mine.  
Ok, so I have an idea for a strategy for a potential coming battle, my _gendarmerie_ , _chevaux-légers_ and general unit will set up on our eastern flank or in other words the left flank, while my chasseurs à cheval, Steve's Papal guard dragoons and Saito's command unit set up on the western flank or in other words the right one, while Piet's unit rides to the centre and has his command unit form the centre of our line.

Meanwhile our non-ranged marine units form a backup unit that will charge into any breech in our lines or if our cavalry gets in heavy weather assist them in their battle. Meanwhile we put our light infantry on the outer edges of our infantry line to attempt to funnel them into attacking our main line, with our movable artillery on that small hill just behind what will be the centre of our line, to shoot over our troops and into the opposing army if it comes to a fight.

Then let the Dutch and the British regular infantry form up as the western part of the line, with the Blue guard infantry directly next to Piet's command unit, and on the eastern side my remaining infantry and the Italian troops forming up on that side, with the Papal guard infantry right next to Piet's command unit. Meanwhile we have our settler infantry build defences at the infantry positions until the battle starts, like Saito already ordered his troops to do. While the plan isn't perfect, it's the best I can think of quickly enough to actually matter.

I've got to admit, a pretty decent plan that you've got there Pierre. Everyone agreed?

Yeah Piet is right, Pierre's plan is better then really much of anything I can think of that can also be implemented fast enough to work right now. Agreed, lets do it and Let's get to it then were mine and Steve's responses respectively.

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Louise POV

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''Oh founder damnit, they stopped any kind of aggression against each-other and now seem to consider us or at the very least the castle behind us as more of a threat. This isn't good.'' Professor Colbert is right, they are still moving, but now not against each-other but to form a defensive position of sorts. There have to be thousands of soldiers in that formation… wait a moment, even if this comes out peacefully I will have stolen an army from either multiple Nobles, or even a multitude of nations. And since their commanders are most likely Nobles, I might even have caused a war! This is not good. Though I don't recognize the flags they are using for some reason? Wait that gives me an idea. That might very well redeem me diplomatically seen.

''Does anyone recognize any of those flags?'' ''No.'' ''Most certainly not.'' ''Not really, though Louise, you did make good on that promise of summoning something more capable then a single dragon, congratulations.'' Wait did Kirche just compliment me? ''Thank you Zerbst, but now is really not the time. Lets talk about that after this all is over.'' I thought it over for a moment ''Professor, what since this might be a first contact scenario, isn't it a good idea to try to set up some kind of diplomatic meeting? To try to get them to communicate with us peacefully?'' He seemed to think for a moment before he came to a decision. ''Starting some kind of diplomatic meeting is important, but how can we possibly convince them of our non-aggression towards them? For all we know they might not even speak any language that we know of.''

''Have had listening spell up since the start, one group shouted their acknowledgement of a command in accented Tristanian. Should be able to converse with that group.'' Was Tabitha's surprising answer. Surprising more in the way of the fact that she said so many words in one sentence then anything else, this is about as many as all I have heard her say in total before today put together. ''The group is the one with the largest amount of mounted forces.'' This put Professor Colbert's worries to rest at least somewhat, so he let out a relieved sigh and said ''I'll use a loudspeaker spell to signal that we want to have a peaceful conversation and negotiate with them, however be on your watch in case they decide to betray that. Miss Zerbst, Miss d'Orleans, leave your familiars here please, we don't know how they might react to each-other.'' He whispered a spell I couldn't understand and started his message.

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Saito POV

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'' _Bonjour les armée au notre Nord, nous sont les représentatives de la nation Tristain, et nous…''_ He went on for a while with that but I couldn't hear him very well, having switched over to my mental link with the others that Piet was now translating the entire thing through for our entire army to hear, in the meantime Steve and I were holding the connection together for the different armies, preparing in case this was an attempt to get our guards down, while Pierre was going to act as the one to initiate conversation from our side if immediately necessary ''wish for peace between our groups to exist, so if it is no problem to you, could we have a diplomatic meeting in the field that is between your force and our location, with a small group of your leaders and a few guards numbering 8 in total meeting with me and 3 ambassadors of the nobility from surrounding nations?''

Ok so we're in a nation that still has some kind of nobility as actually important figures instead of it being little more then a nice title to add to your name, while said country also has at least some neighbours with a similar enough system for them to be recognized as at least somewhat close in standing to their local counterparts. Damnit this can be either really bad or really good, depending on what causes them to be classified as nobility. If its titles and something to do with birth-right alone, it can be a big problem for us.

If it is a more mobile social system where capabilities, connections and brute force are more important, either I or Pierre can claim to be part of our countries nobility ourselves. Piet and Steve actually look slightly more like a being of noble blood according to most standards back home and would theoretically be able to infiltrate a bloodline-type noble society, but they would blow the game by acting rashly the moment the nobles here start talking shit about how they are superior to our troops because they were born into power which would most likely in some way betray the fact that they aren't nobility at all.

All agreed to go for diplomacy first?

I asked the others, to which piet replied with Yes, though we can't all go, one of us needs to stay behind in case this is a trap. I vote Steve stays behind and takes temporary command of the all remaining cavalry including our personal units so that he can rush to our defence or cover our retreat if something goes wrong. As guards we'll take some guys from Pierre's unit, they'll understand what the locals are saying and will thus be less likely to cause a diplomatic incident.

Piet's reply made sense, Steve was also the only one among our group that only knew two languages, while Piet, I and Pierre all were fluent in 3 at least languages, while fully capable of understanding a fourth and fifth with enough knowledge to get the general idea of what was being said with a sixth. And considering Piet was fluent in French while it was Pierre's first language, with between them covering close to all European related languages, I would be able to cover a number of Asiatic languages, so we should be alright communication wise, unless somebody decides to start talking in Swahili or something like that.

Agreed that does seem to be the best option we currently have so good luck you guys, you'll probably need it.

Well luckily nobody seems to have fallen back into a depression yet despite the situation, thank Kami. Thank you for the vote of confidence Steve I know that that is a hidden insult but I'll just accept it in good grace to waste less time. Was the reply he got from Piet. We waited for a moment for Piet to mount up and join us, with the three of us and 5 of our soldiers heading out to meet what seemed to be a middle aged man and three teenage girls from this distance? Not what I expected from a group of ambassadors but alright. Well that young woman with pink hair is all but visibly radiating some kind of supernatural power, and both the old man and the blue haired girl have the look and stances of war veterans prepared for battle.

And all of them have some kind of wand or staff in hand… oh hell no we've arrived in some kind of fantasy world with magical members of their society as part of the nobility… please let magic not be the decider on whether or not you are part of the Nobility in this country, because then the option of using a plan that involves posing as Nobility for any extended period of time is down the drain. However… it did open up a whole other avenue we haven't really considered yet since this place doesn't seem to be very advanced in the traditional sense, so instead of simply them being highly technoligcally capable people with archaic styles of architecture that used some kind of teleporter to bring us here they will probably have brought us here through some kind of supernatural ability.

Guys, I have a plan for how to play this whole diplomatic approach thing, that is also suited to all our personalities and capabilities at least to some level and as such should play to our strengths. It should also reveal them if they understand certain other languages perfectly fine and are trying to hide it for some reason or the other.

Let's hope they accept to listen at least. Well my friend lets hear it, we could use something like that. Ok Pierre agrees thats one problem out of the way I m in agreement with Pierre, let's hear what you have in mind.

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Louise POV

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Up close what seemed to be the three leaders of these groups cut impressive figures, finely clothed, all a certain amount taller then the average Halkeginian, with two of them only just shy of being giants, weapons at the ready in case there is a fight. Though I do not see wands or wands-swords anywhere, just regular if finely made swords and one of them seems to have either an harquebus or a musket on his back?

Maybe they use a differing type of focus, like those regular swords somehow or that musket shaped thing on their back? Or possibly much worse, they are from a barbaric country like Germania were commoners can be elevated to nobility if they have enough financial resources… sigh I can speculate all I want but until a conversation starts I won't know anything. Ok so now that we are close enough I can see that outside of that one man they all seem to have those swords on them as their only weapons, curious.

Once we reach them, the very tall, dark haired, fair skinned man on the from our perspective left side of the group dismounts and steps forward a bit more, before he starts talking. ''Ok, so I believe introductions are in order, I am general Pierre de Alain, with my colleagues general Piet van Vlimmeren'' The other very tall but dark haired and fair skinned man on the right gave a nod from the back of his horse ''and general Saito Hiraga.'' The dark haired man with a slightly different skin colour in the middle dismounted and gave a slight bow, then seemed to say something to the man still on horseback.

 _''My friend, I think it is a more peaceful gesture to dismount for the conversation. Also we're in what is probably a medieval or renaissance era world and there are three young ladies, show a bit of courtesy towards them since in their culture the whole ''Gallant Knight'' thing is probably still a lot more present then it is back home and we should make a good first impression on these lovely ladies.''_

This 'Piet van Vlimmeren' then made a sound that couldn't be interpreted anything other than a sigh and also dismounted, giving a slight bow to us. Then while I was watching that the shorter man had walked up to me, taken my hand in his and placed a slight kiss on top of it, before doing the same to both Kirche and Tabitha, surprising all of us.

''I apologize if my colleague's behaviour is too forward, he is a part-time historian, and this place seems to currently be at a point in time that was centuries past from how it is back home.'' Was said this 'Pierre de Alain', who was seemingly the spokesman of the group. Something about this sentence seemed to get the interest of Professor Colbert ''A historian in command of an army? And what do you mean centuries in the past?'' At this point this 'Saito Hiraga' apparently realized at least most of us couldn't understand him and started talking to 'Piet van Vlimmeren' about something too fast to hear, much to the latter's visible frustration.

'' _Shut up for a moment if you want me to ask them your questions Hiraga, unlike Pierre I had to learn this language as my third one instead of the first which makes it much harder to make myself understandable to people using an accented version of it.''_ Piet van Vlimmeren said to Saito Hiraga', then turned to us ''I hate to agree with General Hiraga, but he does make a good point. Could you please introduce yourselves before we take these talks any further so that we actually know who we are dealing with?'' A reasonable request, I'll start this time around.

''My name is Louise de la Vallière, a Noble from Tristain, and in the current situation both one of its representatives and the person that accidentally transported you and your soldiers here with my magic during the summertime familiar summoning ritual.'' Now I just have to hope we can talk about that like civilized people and that they won't just attack me. They seemed to be too stunned to form an actual reply for the moment, Kirche continued ''I am Kirche von Zerbst and I'm a Germanian Noble, though I must say I'm quite surprised that a de la Valliere would summon so many good looking males to serve her, I love the passion behind the idea, good job Louise!'' Oh founder damnit, Zerbst why do you insist on making the situation worse.

''My name is Jean Colbert, a professor at the Tristanian academy of magic, the grounds were we currently reside on are owned by said academy and all three of the young ladies here are part of its student body.'' After that Tabitha gave the last reply ''Greetings. Tabitha d'Orleans. Gallia.'' After that last reply they finally shook off their confusion and now two of these generals were extremely wary while looking at me, while their troops seemed to regard me with something like … hope?

Can't be sure though, that might be an act. The one exception to all this behaviour though was the man called Saito. He ran up to me, took my hand in his and started asking all kinds of question I couldn't understand while looking at me like he was a scholar and I was a very rare and important book that gave fountains of knowledge he hadn't heard of before.

 _''How did you create a portal that summoned us? Was the act of summoning a human in general intentional or did you actually want to summon something else? At what age is this usually held? How long do you have to train for it? Is it supposed to summon beings from other dimensions? How did you bring the simulated troops to life? How advanced is this spell seen as in your society? Is there supposed to be such a difference in attire between students with how Miss Zerbst wears it, even though yours and Miss d'Orleans attire are near exactly the same? If not, then is she actually a student here or just a stripper hired by this teacher? If the last is true, then why hasn't he been fired yet? Or is he some kind of family member of the leader of this academy which enables him to do whatever he wants?''  
_

I was just staring at him, not understanding a word of what he was saying, which apparently was at least somewhat interesting or funny since one of the soldiers started coughing in a way that usually hides laughter, while Mr. Piet was once against sighing and shaking his head. Though the fact that all the attention of a general that was also learned enough to be considered a historian was on me alone and not on say Zerbst or professor Colbert was somewhat flattering, the whole not understanding the actual questions of the most talkative member of their group was quickly becoming extremely annoying. ''Eh?''

Luckily enough for me, the man named Pierre was more then willing to reply while Piet pulled Saito back and seemed to start berating him. ''I apologize once again for his behaviour, just the fact that we are now here with so many things we've never seen before is making him over-exited. Let me start this by answering your earlier question, the reason why I said centuries ago is because while our clothing style and gear might be somewhat similar to what is used in this country, in our own world it was used centuries ago.

The only reason why we are currently using this is because we were testing a new battlefield simulator, and for the experience we had selected a battlefield from centuries ago, including the simulated soldiers, our own simulated gear, the simulated horses, etcetera. We had just formed our lines and thought out our plans for the upcoming battle when you interrupted us just before the battle started. This was very lucky for you, if you had summoned us even a minute later, bullets and cannonballs would have been flying around and we would have been forced to assume you were computer generated enemies that the technicians behind the program use sometimes to test specific assets of the simulator.''

Before he could go further in his explanation that idiot von Zerbst spoke up ''Isn't it more that you were lucky? We are mages, you people are as far as I can see just commoners with somewhat better muskets and swords, we would have just rained down spells on you and won without losing anything more than a few familiars and maybe Louise here since she can't really do much with her magic'' That was really… the most stupid thing she could have said at this point in time, even if she was only joking which I'm doubting right now.

Given the looks being given to her by both Tabitha and the professor, they agree with me on that point for the most part. Even if he's only a commoner he's an armed soldier with the facial scars to prove that he's seen battle, and especially if they are commoners it is much more likely that they have earned their positions through skill and experience instead of being given the position because they had important relatives somewhere in their respective governments. Even more so considering he just mentioned that they were testing a new type of device that could somehow summon the capabilities of long dead soldiers to fight by their sides to train officers in battle, meaning that they are most likely some of the best and brightest their country has.

On our side on the other hand would have been a group of barely prepared school children, with familiars that are so unused to their masters that they would have been nearly as much of a problem as an asset to our side, with the only really useful mages that aren't here already here being De Gramont with his golems and Montmorency with her ability as a magical healer. The remainder might have some magic to use in classes but they really aren't anywhere near fast enough with it in real life situations to use it properly in battle.

''Watch your tongue you weak fool, you are the least threatening of all those gathered here, on both sides. All our men are trained and experienced soldiers, you like nearly all of those that left fast when we arrived are little more than a child using a power you don't know much about. You might be experienced in using it in a classroom sure, but have you stood fighting while around you your comrades are dying by the dozens, do you have any experience in fighting on when you have already been hit multiple times by all kinds of weapons and projectiles, or when the person next to you explodes into dozens of parts because of an explosive cannonball ripping them open and spewing their blood on you?! Have you?!''

Piet now had his sword drawn and was towering over Zerbst, who had fallen to the ground and was scrambling back to avoid him while whimpering in fear until Tabitha suddenly stood in between them while aiming her staff at the much taller man, who seemed even more like a giant because of Tabitha's own height. ''Stop now.'' Meanwhile, Tabitha's dragon flew towards us, landed behind her and snarled menacingly. The man seemed to give both her and her dragon a grim smile as he nodded to her, as if in respect from one soldier to another?

''Now if all of the students were either like this young lady here and your professor, or even more extraordinarily like the girl you just mocked, then your assumption of us standing no chance of doing any real damage would easily be true.'' Wait what? Tabitha or professor Colbert I can understand but why me? ''The first reason for this is simply that they were all in a combat ready stance, though not threatening but still able to react to any kind of aggression by countering said aggression near immediately with their own attacks or defences.

Secondly, the professor and Miss d'Orleans have the eyes and bearing of experienced soldiers who have faced death multiple times, gone against unsurmountable odds and still emerged from the fight without being fully broken. Lastly miss Vallière managed to summon thousands of sentient beings… that alone should have warned you about her. Then there are also the facts that she managed to not alone summon those beings from another dimension, but was powerful enough to both give real bodies, fully sentient minds and actual weapons and equipment to thousands of simulations and turn them into real human soldiers willing to fight and die for whatever cause they believe in.

She essentially changed what were not much more then barely fleshed out copies of long dead human beings lead by 4 soldiers hooked up onto a battle simulator into an army of battle-ready soldiers, all armed, geared up and with their own free wills! And did she fall on the ground unconscious from the effort of doing that afterwards? No! She stood her ground and was prepared to stand and fight against us, while looking no worse for the wear at all! Give the young lady some more respect!''

What…? I really did all that? I really gave life to thousands of soldiers? I brought thousands of forgotten soldiers back to life? I mean he did say that they were once dead, but I thought it meant that the device brought them back to some kind of life? And a man I have never met before this, whom I took from his original life no less, is defending me against a woman that I have known for years?

And it is not only him, all the soldiers around us and the other two generals are agreeing with him? I feel my knees getting weak for a moment and nearly fall, but I feel somebody steadying me, and as I turn to face him, I see it is Saito Hiraga, the only one that doesn't seem to be able to speak our language, even though it is obvious he understands everything that has been said. A feeling I haven't felt for months wells up in me.. this joy, this great joy, I just can't not do something with it. I hug him, with the top of my head only reaching high enough to rest on top of his muscled chest and just under his face, but today that doesn't matter to me.

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Saito POV

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My dear Piet, always the charmer of crowds and friend of those people that have been repressed in some way, shape or form. Remind me again why you ended up as a VR tester for Creative Assembly instead of a high-ranking member of the Dutch government? I said while moving to support the obviously overwhelmed girl. Piet hadn't actually lied of course, it was all true, but just the way he brought it would make it so much more credible and moving in the eyes of others rather then just stating the facts would have. Especially considering that with this behaviour they now probably believe that every single one of us is extremely experienced in the art of war with weapons and battlefields that they cannot fully comprehend. Which is again to an extent true, since with the exception of me the entire command staff is made up of people who have either fought in a large amount of battles in real life or in the former simulations cases were literally created to fight battles.

Because I did actually run for the position of Minister of Defence remember? And I wasn't chosen due to a combination of my opponent deciding to hack into my computer and publish my medical file for everyone to read, showing that I had PTSD left over from losing most of my squad to a veritable army of raiders that were pretty much rejects from terrorist groups that really fought for ideals, while on the other hand also being a soldier who had killed enemies during battle, the combination of which made it easy for him to paint me as nothing more than a bloodthirsty war hound to the general public.

Damnit why did I have to bring it up, I know he still has problems with his experiences from both that war and the aftermath. Pierre and Steve have the same problems with their own experiences, however with Pierre most of it is somewhat less recent and Steve hides it behind relatively peppy behaviour. Its probably one of the other reasons why he… wait a second when did Louise start hugging me. Ehm guys did anyone see when Louise decided to start hugging me? The reply to this came unexpectedly from neither Piet or Pierre but instead from one of our guards.

Just a moment ago sir. The lady was looking at both you and the other generals with a look of extreme admiration and thankfulness on her face, then turned most of that to you because you were also physically supporting her and decided to hug you. Thank you for the explanation lieutenant. I then felt some liquid falling on my shirt, and since it isn't raining that probably means she's crying. And yes the soft sobs confirm it. Sigh I have never really been good with women, but she has apparently had an at least somewhat hard life despite being a member of the local Nobility, so I'll give her whatever comfort I can and hug her back. She seems to be a bit surprised at first, but then relaxes further into the hug, keeping her head against my chest while I ruffle her hair and rub along her back.

We'll leave the two of you together for now with the lieutenant assisting as a translator, while we continue the negotiations. I don't think I need to tell you how important she is with how she both summoned us and all but created an entire army. However she is also only a teenager so she is probably very vulnerable and will need both protection as well as support, and you're going to be the one to have to provide that for now.

Don't really have a problem with that. No problem Pierre, you two go and get us some accommodations and some general knowledge of the area. I'll be the one hugging good looking young ladies, the much harder job. Lets just hope they don't take the joke the wrong way, the girl admittedly seems to be somewhat younger then I thought earlier on.

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Colbert POV

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While it is beautiful that these people already care so much about her after just meeting her, and see that spark in her that for some reason eludes all others that have known her for years, it is still a very sad day when a student of our school had to be defended from one of her own classmates by people she had just summoned. Lets get this show on the road then and ensure that everything goes peacefully.

The fact that the whole summoning thing went over without too much trouble is good, but now we still have to handle the logistics of housing, feeding, clothing and rehabilitating thousands of people that have apparently been nothing but imprints of long dead soldiers until extremely recently. How they even achieved creating this I do not for a understand at all, nor do I understand how in Brimir's name Louise managed to give them back their full lives, but I will have to wait until everything has settled down to ask them about that.

''Ok gentlemen, I appreciate the care for one of my students, but I would like to know how we're going to work the logistics of feeding, housing and clothing your armies. We will be able to do so at the academy for a while, but not for too long because of the strain it would cause on our budget.'' I hope they have a plan to solve that, I can't think about anything right now, and luckily Mr. van Vlimmeren had thought of something ''Are there any areas nearby under the control of some kind of raider group? If there is we could clear them out for you then use part of the land to start up some farms and housing units. While not an immediate solution it would lessen most of the long-term problems relatively well.''

Hmm though there are no nearby raider groups, there is still that small orcish village situated relatively close to the academy that was discovered a few days ago, however no forces have been spared for it considering the escalation of the situation in Albion. ''There is a tribe of orcs situated about 5 hours of travel on horseback away from here, we would have cleared the place out earlier but with international tensions rising, most of our current forces are situated at the capital and in border areas to ensure that nobody can take advantage of said tensions to invade us.''

''We could do that relatively easily but we'll need more information then that beforehand. However with that taken care of for now, can we set-up a camp anywhere nearby to rest our troops in?'' Just then Osmond finally decided to step outside, considering his position he had probably been listening in with a spell for a while and started walking towards us, followed shortly afterwards by his secretary. ''The man and woman currently walking towards us are the headmaster and his secretary, they can decide where would be the best position for you to setup camp. Also, as part of the summoning ceremony the familiar and summoner usually bond through a spell almost directly after it happens, here we didn't do that because of the circumstances, but are any of you or your men interested in becoming the main familiar?''

''Any positives to it?'' Mr. de Alain asked. ''Yes, the runes usually give the familiar some kind of power or ability, sometimes making them more intelligent, at other times strengthening their bodies or enhancing their senses, and many more other useful things. However one basic thing is that they always let the summoned being understand the language the summoner is most comfortable with.'' Mr. Hiraga was now visibly interested. He said something to Mr. de Alain who nodded, turned towards me and said ''My friend here is interested, however he wants to know if Ms. de la Vallière also wouldn't have a problem with him being the main familiar?''

At this I finally noticed that while we were talking Ms. Vallière had regained control of her emotions, and while still having red eyes from her emotional outburst earlier, she had a smile on her face, while looking up at Mr. Hiraga with wide eyes filled with hope ''I would love for him to be my familiar'' she looked at the others ''not that I have a problem with any of you, its just, he seems to be way closer to my age then everyone else and this is a very long term thing, so I want somebody that I probably have more in common with, if it isn't a problem to anyone?''

Mr. van Vlimmeren gave her a small smile that I already know isn't something he does often ''Young lady, we completely understand. Outside of him we're all probably the same age as your parents, possibly older, and when we were your age we also wouldn't want to spend days on an end with them by our side berating everything we did.'' His look turned colder and more thoughtful after that ''Though how long term is it really?''

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Louise POV

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''A familiar and their summoner are lifelong companions after they bond with one another, and only separate once one of them dies. Both can do everything and anything they want while bound to each-other, find love with a completely different person and keep their own free will, but they cannot be unbound unless one of the two dies.'' Piet and Pierre showed that they were less enthusiastic now that they knew this, but Saito looked towards them and gave them a nod, making them sigh in resignation, before nodding in return. Though I was a bit worried about giving my familiar my first kiss, the others had to do the same to animals, while I only have to kiss a handsome young man. Bad thoughts, lets get on with this!

Saito then changed our positions and lowered himself a bit so our faces were at equal height, and I began my chant ''By the power of the pentagram of the five Elements I, Louise le blanc de la Vallière, brand thee as my familiar!'' I kissed him on the lips and yes, there the contract is forming and those lips don't taste bad but AAAAHHHH! The pain, the Brimir forsaken pain in my fore-arm! That isn't supposed to happen! ''AAAAHHHHHHH!''

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3rd person POV

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After both Louise and Saito fell on the ground in pain, the other dimensional travellers all felt a slight pain in their fore-arms, though nowhere near the amount that Saito and Louise seemed to be experiencing, which caused them to decide to aim their weapons at the mages, until they stopped for a moment, then lowered their weapons, while rushing towards Saito and Louise, helping the two in standing upright.

Tabitha, Colbert, Kirche and the newly arrived Osmond and Matilda looked very surprised at this sudden change in attitude, and didn't understand what could have caused it. Not only that, but why are both of them in so much pain? Usually familiars only receive something closer to the pain of a relatively light burn wound while the master feels nothing, so what happened here for both of them to have received so much pain that it must have been just shy of forcibly knocking them out from a pain overload?

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Louise POV

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My head… what is happening to me, why am I in so much pain and why can I not see? Ready for battle, they've betrayed us and lured the kid in to be the unknowing method of attack somehow! All light infantry get in range as fast as possible, we need cover fire to fight our way back to our defensive formation! Ready the rockets to provide anti-air cover fire in case they have more of those damned dragons or other flying mounts! I'll hold the dragon off while the rest of you get back to safety after you take down the humans! What is happening, why is Mr Piet shouting orders as if preparing for battle?

Orders understood sir, all units are getting into position and will open fire on targets of opportunity on your command! Wait, lured the kid in, did Saito also get hit by this blinding pain and they thought it was an attack or something? Doesn't matter now, have to stop this before it becomes a war! Stop, please stop now! It wasn't an attack, the bonding ritual is suppose to only give a slight irritation on the arm for the familiar, the ritual must have had negative side-effects somehow because he's a human!

Wait a second, I didn't open my mouth to talk at all and since I can't smell fire or burning flesh means professor Colbert isn't reacting to this anywhere near as aggressively as he would in case he had actually heard it, so Mr Piet didn't say it out loud either. Halt the attack plan for now, this might turn out to be a great misunderstanding instead of a targeted act. Ok, one good thing now.

What in Brimir's name is going on here? Why am I hearing your voice in my head?! Then I heard Pierre's calm, soothing voice, though there was a strict tone to it. Easy there Ms Vallière we already stopped our advance against the other locals and I'll give you some answers if you promise to keep quiet about this for now and answer some of our own questions. Well, I don't really have much of another option if I want the situation to remain peaceful and I really need answers on what is happening.

I accept on the condition that the first thing answered is my question on how we are talking to each-other without actually talking right now? It is both extremely confusing and unnerving.

I felt instead of heard the mental sigh that he managed to somehow express? That is understandable, depending on if your society is knowledgeable about telepathy this can either be very easy or very difficult to understand. What in Brimir's name is this tele-whatty? I can honestly say I have never even heard of that term, so I do not understand at all. What does it mean? While asking this I felt somebody at my side assist me in sitting up and support my back to keep me steady for the moment

Telepathy is a form of non-verbal communication that uses the power of the human mind to create a psychic connection between people to directly transfer information at a speed much faster then what could ever be achieved with verbal communications.

I will admit I'm not the best student at the practical aspect of the magical arts, but I'm sure of one thing: I know more about the theory behind literally all magic in excistance then nearly any other noble currently alive. And I've still never heard of anything even the slightest bit like that.

Telepathy was often imagined to be a supernatural ability that humans could assume once our brains would grow strong enough to handle the stress behind it sometime in the far future. When we left however it was instead an experimental artificial process that allows you to mentally talk with others during combat simulations/operations.

It was being implemented into the simulation we were working on as a final test of that working version, partially to see how the contact between people outside of environments strictly for telepathy testing would work but also partially to see if using the current telepathy technology as a way for an officer to give commands to troops spread out over a large battlefield would work out at all or just not do anything due to a too large number of minds to communicate to.

Interesting. Wait a minute what if?

Wait so is it like the mind link that happens between a familiar and their summoner on the first few nights, giving both small glimpses into the other's life? My vision started to return, causing me to finally be able to see what was happening around me. I suppose you could see it that way Louise, though this is a more permanent and long-term thing then said mind link. I looked to my sides to see who was assisting me in sitting up, and saw Saito was supporting my right side, while now asking ''Do you feel good enough to stand up right now?''

I nodded my consent, not fully trusting my voice yet, after which he nodded back and lifted me back onto my feet. All the while keeping my arm over his shoulder and his arm behind my back holding the left side of my torso to keep me steady while standing. It's a bit embarrassing, but he's both my familiar and one of the few people of my own age I know that is genuinely nice to me. He smiles at me when I look up to see his face, causing me to give a shy smile back before looking down again. The closeness of his body and that smile are also causing some… less welcome feelings.

Wait a second… I just understood what he said. ''Since when did you start speaking Tristanian?'' He looks at me in confusion ''You mean the local language with Tristanian right?'' I nodded. ''I didn't speak it at all, though we call it French, I am not actually good enough at the language to hold a conversation in it with anyone?'' This caused Pierre to look over to us ''Actually, you did talk in what sounded like accented French back there, which is one of the primary languages of the locals as you already knew.''

He continued through the talepath, no telepathy form of communication. Which though fortunate is something we need to look into fast, to see if there aren't any other less fortunate side effects of the familiar bonding. Both the ability of Louise to gain access to our telepathic link and your ability to speak the local language are very nice, but the possibility of you suddenly losing the ability to speak or understand say Japanese or English for example is extremely troubling.

English and Japanese are probably either his personal birth languages or the trade tongue they use for verbal communication between themselves and their troops. It shouldn't affect his ability with either language, but this hasn't been exactly a normal summoning at any point so the possibility for something going disastrously wrong is much higher than that it would be in other circumstances. Normally the bonding only grants whomever is summoned the ability to understand the summoners language, however this is the third or fourth time I think in recorded history that the familiar actually gained the ability to speak the language of the summoner after the bonding.

Though somewhat strange, he was right. This is a good development, it will allow the two of us to converse on many topics, and if he was commanding an army in whatever a 'simulation' is, though with how they talked about it, it will probably be a highly advanced magical device used to train officers by making them relive a past battle, which means that all four of them have some degree of importance in their home countries armies as I already concluded earlier.

This also will give him the opportunity to teach me how to do the same, though I'll have to get him a bed immediately if he is to sleep in my room as my familiar... wait a second he might have to sleep in my room, me in a room alone with a handsome man that has to follow my every command... bad thoughts! He is both older then me and I m engaged, I should not be thinking about this!

''Let us all continue this conversation inside, where it will be somewhat more accommodating to all of us. Your troops may set up camp in the field that you were transported into if they want.'' Pierre nodded to old Osmond and gave one of the riders the order to go back and inform one Steve Churchill of this out loud, while he in reality already informed him through their mind connection.

Steve, in case you weren't listening the headmaster has allowed us to set-up camp in the field our army found ourselves in upon arriving. I'm sending lieutenant Jacques to keep up the farce that we actually need verbal communication to bring over our intentions to each-other over at the very least somewhat longer distances, he'll probably have noticed already we don't always use verbal communication over short distances with how little we had to talk to make our intentions known to each-other.

His reply came shortly afterwards Sure thing my friend, continue on with the negotiations, I'll organise our forces into setting up camp. Well, a new chapter of my life awaits, and for once I have the support of many behind me. I am Louise de la Vallière, and I will succeed, no matter what this society wants to do to me! I will rise and be the protector of the Tristanian crown for as long as I live and I will die before even a hair on Henrietta's head is harmed, that is my oath!

 **Authors Note** : Anyways, I hope you people enjoy reading the story, please give reviews about what is good and what can be done in a better way. At first I wanted to both include the battle against the orcs and the unit codex of all groups in this, but then I realised just how many words I already had at that point (15k words) and decided I would like to keep it below 25k words if possible, and so finished it off there and added whatever parts of the British and special units codex's that weren't done yet. Which turned out to be a good move because that alone has over 10k words meaning that if I had added them all I would end up with roughly 50k words for this chapter alone.

After the end of this AN there will the a codex of the British and special units shown in this chapter, do keep in mind though that while the units that have crossed over from Empire Total War keep all their researched abilities and equipment, they have to be researched once again to arm up soldiers recruited from the local population in Tristain with them once we reach that part of the story. Though here it's much less of a problem then in my other story because I actually have a very large amount of information from the Total War units to go off on how strong they are in canon, though I will need to change some things like recruitment time a bit since I'm changing the half a year periods seen as turns in Empire Total War into having a month be a turn.

I do this since it is both realistic for militia level units to be recruited in a month and since you now have a group that already knows a lot about both the technologies, social systems etc. that can be researched, it won't take anywhere near as long to research those things as it would in real life. The amount of vehicles, weapons, etcetera that have been transported into the FoZ world over time will also add to much faster development of semi-modern gear (think early machine guns and rifled muskets at first, then 19th century machine guns, then 19th century machine guns, then a very select amount of extremely primitive combustion engine reliant vehicles and early factories, andsoforth).

Thirdly for anyone who has a problem with me writing Louise as having a small crush on Saito from the start even if she is unwilling to truly acknowledge it, back off. She's a heavily abused teenager, both physically and emotionally, that has no friends outside of her sister and the princess of a country, never got much recognition from her own mother (though not for the reasons she thinks it to be) that also happens to live in a society that looks down on her for not performing magic to their exact standards. Then she suddenly summons an army consistent of thousands of soldiers.

And unlike in our current time or even Europe during the renaissance which is the area roughly equal to their time, the population of Halkeginia is scarely low. Like the total population of the entire continent put together (including all sentient non-human species) is about as much as the population of the Benelux (roughly 29 million) today, while Tristain alone posses as much ground as the entire Benelux but only roughly 1 million in population count. And that is very much at most, considering the other countries are depicted as all having larger armies, navies, larger populations, larger everything, then Tristain does, which is nearly impossible if one thinks about the fact that their population is heavily militarized, which means that they cannot have more than 4% of the continents population as one of those countries is nation that depends solely on combat priests to keep up its military strength while being ruled by a theology. The reason why that at most 4% then makes for only a million inhabitants is simple, like I stated earlier the entire population of Halkeginia is somewhere between 28 and 30 million.

And while theologies might be good governments for a lot of things, one thing they usually aren't good at is creating a good stable economy. Especially a theology based government existing out of people born into those positions. This means that Tristain's entire national professional army will be only about 6 to 8 thousand troops, with another 10 to 12 thousand professional soldiers sent by nobles during wartimes to serve in the national army, and lastly some 25000 levees and militia's available during wartime only.

This gives them a grand total of 45000 troops that can be used maximum, if they call upon close to everyone that can be called upon without endangering the economy and still being able to leave behind a minimum number of troops to defend the place. What I mean to tell with this is just to point out how small both their armies and populations are in comparison to modern times.

As for people saying that there have been countries in the past that conscripted a much larger part of their nation into the military, yes it happened, but the only ways to sustain an army of more than a twentieth of your population for long periods of time in a pre-industrial society is either A: slavery of some kind, whether this be slave soldiers or slaves performing all labour heavy work back home, B: have a near constant campaign of raiding and active conquest then put the captured enemies to work.

C: Have allies/ tributary states that supply and support you in non-military matters (such as food, raw ores, etcetera) in exchange for you defending their territory against enemies or lastly D: have a country so small that that the armies can be marched from any one side of it to the other within a few days at most, causing most of them to still be able to do their daily jobs with relative ease even when drafted.

Since Tristain doesn't have either of the last two, its nobles being too greedy to ever put their slaves, I mean commoner subjects, to work for the crown without taking most of the profits out of it themselves causing the first one not to be viable and it only being surrounded by stronger and larger nations, the maximum number is literally the extreme maximum only available during wartimes while leaving only an extremely small barely armed militia behind to guard the country if it is used offensively.

Then suddenly Louise, whom is as I stated earlier an emotionally and physically abused teenager, summons in an army of at least 3000 well trained and well-armed soldiers, they tell her about how she gave most of them a new chance at life, then defend her from one of her classmates, give her more emotional support then she has had from anyone except for two others for all of her life and finally one of the generals in command of this army decides to agree to becoming her familiar.

All of these men are physically in top shape, enjoy a level of hygiene nobody she knows does and finally have an unknown but seemingly intriguing backstory. Heck I'm a straight male and even I would have probably had a crush because of something like that if it happened to me at that age. Unless she is a lesbian or deeply in love with somebody else, it is completely unrealistic for her to not develop a crush for one of them.

Also secondly do keep in mind that the abilities of Special Units such as Louise, Saito, Piet, Pierre, etc. will grow and thus when this story is 100k words underway Louise might be roughly 5 times as dangerous as she is now. Possibly even something more extreme than that. And no with 5 times more dangerous I don't mean 5 times higher stats, just for instance her getting actually decent aim, better defensive gear and somewhat higher physical capabilities so she can defend herself for long enough in close quarters for other support to arrive.

Thirdly, many non-canon traits/abilities will show up, some for plot reasons, some to make the units more realistic and useful, some to go over the magical nature of the Familiar of Zero world and some to describe how past experiences shaped this person or group.) Lastly, there is the thing of me having an unknown being call 'Brimir' creator. It is more along the line of how the Geth refer to the Quarians as 'creators' in Mass Effect, mixed with adoration for someone that was the parental figure for him/her/itself. Less in the idea that it considers Brimir the creator of all sentient life. I'll say beforehand, he's not the creator of all life or something like that in this story.

Coalition forces under the command of Louise de la Vallière (be warned this is going to be very, very long. And with very long I mean as in about as long as everything else in the chapter put together, so it is recommended if you like being surprised and don't care much for the exact details of everything, to just skip this part.)

Special Units:

 **Louise de la Vallière**

Category: Leader  
Class: Faction leader (She has both overall command of her factions military, but is also the political leader/head of state. Whenever entering a battlefield will have supreme command of all her factions troops in the area. However, said faction is a protectorate of the Tristanian crown)  
Men: 1  
Firepower: 2 to 500 (Depending on what spell is being used, how much power is put into it, at what range it hits the opponent and if she has her wand or not. Her usual spell of choice, the 'fireball' type explosion spell, does 10 to 120 damage depending as said before on the power put into it)  
Range: 50 to 350 (depending both on what spell is currently being used and if she has her wand or not, since both can either shorten or enlarge the range. A combination of using the wand and her fire-ball spell at full power together has the 350 range.)  
Accuracy: 15 without wand, 20 with wand  
Munition: 1 to 250 (depending both on how much power is put into the spell, at what range the attack will hit and if she has her wand or not, with no wand the maximum damage in the strongest spell (500) uses up all available magic, while with a wand she can fire 2 of those, but nothing stronger because that is the maximum amount of power the wand can channel at once.) (2 to 500 if the Void is with me activates regularly, 4 to 1000 if The Void is with me activates supercharged)  
Melee attack: 2  
Charge bonus: 2  
Defence: 2  
Morale: 8 (16 with Noble's Duty activate, 24 with For the Monarch activate. 24 morale means literally completely impossible to rout no matter what happens, so combining them wouldn't add anything.)

The third child of the main branch of the De La Valliere family, with her mother originally having said name and her father (the bastard child of the grandfather of the current Princess, who despite his heritage was seen as a brother by the last king and as such his children are in line for the throne if Henrietta abdicates or cannot fulfil her royal duties for whatever reason) taking the name after marrying Karin de la Vallière. Louise is currently 4 foot 8 inches foot (145 centimetres) tall and 17 years old.

She is often seen as a problem due to people not understanding how her magic works, which made them think she had no ability to shape magic and as such was seen as a shame of a mage by her eldest sister and most of her 'peers' at school. Her mother, unknown to her, while not liking the fact that her daughter couldn't do normal magic, did understand the implications of the ability to create different calibre explosions with every spell cast, and then being able to cast those explosions many more times then her peers could cast their own spells.

She didn't interfere in the problems between sisters, thinking in her 'rule of steel' line of thought that the conflict would only make Louise stronger as long as it didn't kill her. This has left the girl very inept socially, which makes it even harder to gain friends, but has also both created a hidden steel right under the surface of her personality and made her become unquestionably loyal to those few that have managed to earn said loyalty, including her older sister Cattelaya and the current Princess of Tristain Henrietta.

She will do anything for them, no matter the cost to her personally, consequences be damned as long as the job will get done and the person in question is saved. When during the ritual she summoned a veritable army of thousands and was told shortly afterwards that it was her magic that gave most of them a chance at new life, she was both shocked but also extremely elated, she could now prove to the world that she was worth much more then a simple trophy wife with nobody being able to disprove that it was she that had summoned entire armies.

 **Abilities  
**

Void magic  
Explosion magic (this person has a specialty for explosion magic, making them much more attuned and capable at this then most)

The Void is with me (will activate as a side effect when either Noble's duty or For the Monarch activates, enlarges her magical reserves by 2 times when either one is active, by four times if both are active at the same time. Will not change firepower maximum because of the fact that the regular maximum firepower is also the largest amount that can be channelled through both Louise's body and her wand without damaging either currently. Will change in the future once both her body gets stronger and/or the wand gets replaced with a better version.)

Mark of the summoner (Allows the summoner to use the same type of mental communication a faction leader has with their subjects in a Total War series game to give orders to everyone that swears loyalty to her. The disadvantage of this link is that only words can be sent, and that unlike in the Total War series long distances can decrease the strength and clarity of the link. Also allows to view city management as it is shown in Empire: Total War.)

 **Technological abilities  
**

Enchanted armour (Gives +4 to defence and a higher level of heat resistance. Currently being held onto by her mother and will be given to her after she successfully commands forces in a battle for the first time)

Wand-sword (Can both function as a close combat weapon in which function it will give her +3 melee attack and +2 charge bonus, can also handle not only 50% more magical power being pushed through it at once but also strengthens the magic being pushed through by 20%, enabling Louise to use more of her full power at once if necessary and heavily strengthening the effects of said full power. Being held onto by her mother currently and will be given to her after she successfully commands forces in a battle for the first time.)

 **Traits**

Theoretical knowledge of magic (due to hours of studying for theoretical knowledge of magic and the potential applications of many spells to a much higher degree then a regular mage, this person can now more easily devise tactics both with and against groups of mages. +1 command when fighting against an army mostly consistent of mages, +1 command when leading an army mostly consistent of mages into battle)

For the Monarch (This trait is the result of her close relationship with the current crown princess. When anything is seen by her as being even remotely a threat to Tristains royal family she will be either victorious or die in battle. When activated triples her base morale, gives her +1 command ability and her sheer determination will inspire her troops, +1 morale to all units fighting by her side on the battlefield.)

Noble's duty (This ability started to exist out of the great dedication towards duty this person has, which makes them take the duty all members of Nobility have in their eyes to defend the commoners extremely seriously, especially when said rights are being infringed upon by other nobles. When activated doubles this persons/units base morale and gives +1 morale to armies with similar views and/or mostly non-mage troops when the person with this trait is the commander of the armed forces)  
My people are my family (This leaders cares greatly for his or her subordinates, which those subordinates know and admire their leader for. +2 love from the common populace, +1 love from the nobility/high class, +1 morale in battle for any friendly forces)

Multilingual (This person has the ability to speak more than 3 languages, both enabling easier diplomacy and giving him more prestige in the eyes of nearly every member of the population, though mainly so for the nobility. +5% chance of convincing people your argument is correct, +2 love from the nobility, +1 love from the lower classes, +5 diplomatic prestige)

 **Requirements to recruit:  
**

Special units are referring to specific people, the 'hero' units and leaders of their factions, which means that it is impossible to actually recruit most of them outside of personally convincing them to join your side over whatever group they are siding with now.

 **General Saito Hiraga**

Category: Leader  
Class: General  
Men: 1  
Range: - (will change in the future, but currently doesn't have a ranged weapon)  
Accuracy: - (50 normally on average, 70 with runes on average, with will of steel and runes both together 90)  
Reloading skill: - (normally 30, with runes 50, Gandalfrs and runes both 70)  
Melee attack: 16 (32 when runes are activated, 48 Gandalfrs steel conviction and runes both)  
Charge bonus: 15 (30 when runes are activated, 45 Gandalfrs steel conviction and runes both)  
Defence: 14  
Morale: 16 (24 when Gandalfrs steel conviction activates)  
Recruitment cost: -  
Upkeep cost: £2 (spent on food and equipment upkeep only)  
Command ability: Between 9 and 14 command capability depending on the situation  
Army bonus morale: +7 morale

Saito Hiraga is a 5 foot 8 inches (173 centimetres) tall 22 year old man of Japanese origin. He was hired by Creative Assembly to work on their new VR project, which started on the 15th of October 2018 and has become good friends with his direct superior in this project and the three co-workers that he spends most of the day with during testing. Unknown to Saito, the reason behind selecting him was not done on any physical abilities or disabilities he may have had, but a combination of a cultural and educational factors.

Saito Hiraga was born in a family that has a long history of martial service in the Japanese military, with his father, uncles, aunts, both grandfathers and one of his great grand-parents all having served as part of the Japanese military. While Saito is part of the JDF reserve forces and as such can be called into service in case Japan will ever get attacked, his main focus was on his studies in history, where he was specialised in 18th century Europe and the Middle East. His fascination with this specific time period had started after he played Empire Total War in 2012, and fell in love with it. Because of this, when Creative Assembly attempted to recruit him for their VR project for the game Empire Total War 1 in September 2018, he jumped on it.

Due to a combination of high intellect and his large knowledge base on this time period, he had gone through a faster then regular program in his studies, which caused him to be a history professor at age 21. This has had him be not only a test-subject for the project, but also one of the historians working on ensuring the outfits, buildings and flags that can be seen on the battlefield and campaign map in VR mode fit with the actual historical nations they are supposed to represent. However after he had worked on the project for only slightly more then two weeks, he and 3 of his co-workers were teleported out of their VR chambers by way of a portal summoned by a young mage from another world.

However due to a combination of outside interference and the way that the VR machines worked, instead of just the 4 of them being transported to Halkeginia in their jumpsuits, they instead appeared with the clothing, gear and armies that they would have had in the VR session, which meant they were now commanding thousands of men armed and equipped with 18th century military gear in what seemed to be a medieval fantasy world.

 **Abilities**

Can rally routing troops

Inspires nearby units

Good stamina

Gandalfr runes (allow for the use of any weapon at least somewhat competently no matter how little you knew about it beforehand while also giving increased physical strength, usually double of what was originally there. Also enables faster reloading and better aim with all ranged weapons and a high level of competence in driving vehicles built for the purpose of war. Also allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

Modern infantry training (Gives even higher physical conditioning and allows for both better ranged ability with fire-arms as well as better close quarter abilities both unarmed, with bladed weapons and with rifles. +5 to melee attack, +10 accuracy with fire-arms)

Resistant to morale shocks

Gandalfrs steel conviction (When fighting for something or someone he fiercely believes in on the battlefield, it strengthens his morale to the point routing him is impossible, no matter what happens. Also, even when without a weapon of any kind the runes will activate, if he has a weapon they will double the usual bonus.)

Modern military training (Gives superior physical conditioning and a 50% higher capability with modern weapons/vehicles. Also allows to create improvised grenades and other explosives with greater ease. Also heightens ability with any and all fire-arms by +5 accuracy.)

 **Technological abilities**

Combat medic (Not in use yet due to 'modern medical supplies' not having been researched yet)

 **Traits**

Born to fight (+2 command when fighting on land)

Great general (+3 to command in battle)

Cool under fire (+1 to morale)

Courageous leader (+3 to morale)

Darling of the gutter press (+2 to morale)

Charismatic (+25% of chance of convincing people your argument is correct, -5% costs on supplies bought in bulk, +25% higher recruitment rate of troops for the  
faction this person is part of, +10% higher chance of opposing units surrendering)

Historian (+10% chance to see pattern in actions when these are there, also knows a lot about 17th and 18th century strategies, logistics, tactics and production methods, +1 command against enemies using tactics that were recorded extensively in history, +2 command when fighting in command of such an army.)

Horsemanship (Is good enough at riding a horse that it doesn't diminish his combat capabilities while riding one)

Modern military officer's training (+2 command when on the defensive against a combined land/air assault due to extensive knowledge about how to quickly and effectively setup a trench based defensive system and how to make improvised Anti-Aircraft weaponry. +1 command when using a combined arms assault while on the offensive. Lastly gives +1 command when in charge of an infantry force with fire-arms and artillery support, no matter how primitive or advanced said weapons and artillery are.)

Mentioned in dispatches (+1 morale, +1 to command when leading infantry units)

Multilingual (This person has the ability to speak more then 3 languages, both enabling easier diplomacy and giving him more prestige in the eyes of nearly every member of the population, though mainly so for the nobility. +5% chance of convincing people your argument is correct, +2 love from the nobility, +1 love from the lower classes, +5 diplomatic prestige)

 **Requirements to recruit**

Special units are referring to specific people, the 'hero' units and leaders of their factions, which means that it is impossible to actually recruit them outside of personally convincing them to join your side over whatever group they are siding with now.

 **General Piet van Vlimmeren**

Category: Leader  
Class: General  
Men: 1  
Range: 70  
Accuracy: 70 (60 when on horseback, 80 when on foot with runes active, 70 when on horseback with runes active)  
Reloading skill: 60 (30 when on horseback, 70 with runes active on foot, 40 on horseback with runes active)  
Ammunition: 15  
Melee attack: 24 (36 with runes are active on horseback, 30 when on foot without runes active, 45 when on foot with runes active)  
Charge bonus: 15 (25 on horseback, 23 when runes are active on foot, 37.5 on horseback with runes active)  
Defence: 20  
Morale: 16 (24 when steel convictions becomes active)  
Recruitment cost: -  
Upkeep cost: £4 (spent on food, equipment and ammunition only)  
Command ability: between 10 and 17 command capability depending on the situation  
Army bonus morale: between +8 and +16 morale depending on the situation.

Piet van Vlimmeren is a 190 cm tall 37 year old veteran soldier from the Netherlands, who fought in a multitude of battles and was during his time of active service the second most capable close quarters combatant in the Royal Netherlands Military. He started military service at age 22 after finishing officers school at the top of his class, and fought in multiple battles during 3 tours in different warzones, before leaving active service at the age of 30 after seeing his brother die trying to save several civilians, with said civilians still dying shortly afterwards despite all effort being put into having them survive because of an enemy RPG rocket hitting the building they were hiding in.

After returning home, he decided to instead join the reserve forces, where he was immediately granted back the rank he had when he left the active military, namely that of captain. After seeing the extremely poor state the reserve forces were in and how the public treated returning military veterans, he decided to go into politics. Joining a political faction in his home-town, he quickly worked his way up the political ladder through both charisma and his popularity with the local public for being a straight-forward person and decorated military veteran.

Since the town was close to a military facility, many of the voters worked for/with the military or profited from the fact that they were stationed there in some way or another, causing the people to be more interested in the state of the military, their treatment by the general public and the quality of their equipment.  
From here after winning local elections by a large margin and being part of the town council, he joined national politics at age 35.

While less effective on a nationwide level, he still had gained enough public support that he was standing to gain 5 of the 150 seats in the _'Tweede Kamer'_ (second chamber, the name of one of the Dutch chambers of parliament) which would be just enough to make the victory of a coalition of 2 other parties a certainty, causing him to bargain with them, the results of which would see him supporting them in their ideas for the most part, with him becoming Minister Of Defence and their support of his plans to spend more money to ensure all overdue maintenance on military equipment would be performed and new equipment bought where the old needed to be replaced badly.

After another political party that was also in negotiations with the coalition learned of this, they feared that their own party would not be allowed into the coalition because of them wanting much larger changes to the coalitions plans since with the seats of the new military oriented party they would be useless. To counter this danger to their position they started a slander campaign, including leaking all Piet's medical files to the public while making speeches of him being a _''Bloodlustige man die het liefst ons land in oorlog zou brengen om het kleinste akkefietje.''_ (''Man filled with bloodlust, who would drag our country into a war over the slightest diplomatic problem.'').

This in combination of fear for how his PTSD would affect his abilities as part of the countries leadership caused public support to crumble almost completely, both in national and local elections. At the actual elections he eventually didn't even get enough votes to get 1 seat in the new parliament, sending him into a depression and ruining his chances at the local elections a few months later. The rival that started the whole thing also blackmailed the new minister of defence into revoking Piet's membership of the reserve forces for alleged mental instability, throwing him further into his depression.

With no family left and not wanting to ruin his body with drink, he dove into playing video games as his way of escaping his problems, eventually coming to enjoy strategy games, in specific those of the Total War series. While in this depression he was approached by Creative Assembly to work for them as a member of the team that would enact the movements for the troops in their new VR version of the original Empire Total War game, which he readily accepted to just have something productive to do on a daily basis.

After enjoying working for them for more then a year, he also took them up on the offer to join the testing teams for the VR gameplay, bringing him in as a military expert. Though after he had worked on the project for only slightly more than two weeks, he and 3 of his co-workers were teleported out of their VR chambers by way of a portal created by a young mage from another world.

However due to a combination of outside interference and the way that the VR machines worked, instead of just the 4 of them being transported to Halkeginia in their jumpsuits, they instead appeared with the clothing, gear and armies that they would have had in the VR session, which meant they were now commanding thousands of men armed and equipped with 18th century military gear in what seemed to be a medieval fantasy world.

 **Abilities**

Resistant to morale shocks

Can rally routing troops

Inspires nearby units

Modern military training (Gives superior physical conditioning and a 50% higher capability in operating modern weapons/vehicles. Also allows to create improvised grenades and other explosives with greater ease. Also heightens ability with any and all fire-arms by +5 accuracy.)

Modern infantry training (Gives even higher physical conditioning and allows for both better ranged ability with fire-arms as well as better close quarter abilities both unarmed, with bladed weapons and with rifles. +5 to melee attack, +10 accuracy with fire-arms)

Steel conviction (When fighting for something or someone he fiercely believes in on the battlefield, it strengthens his morale to the point routing him is impossible, no matter what happens.)

Very good stamina

Grappling hooks

Slightly degraded Gandalfr runes (These runes give half the bonuses that similar full runes would give to a person, in this case a 50% increase of physical abilities, half of the increase in ranged abilities but still give a high level of competence with controlling any vehicle meant for war. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Technological abilities**

Fire and advance  
Fire by rank  
Square formation  
Platoon firing  
Socket bayonet

 **Traits  
**

Fought on the line (As this man was once a simple soldier fighting on the front line as well, his speeches make a much deeper impression on the men and inspire them more then the same speeches would from most other officers, especially those about the defence of their homeland against aggressor's. +1 morale in offensive battles, +2 morale in defensive battles, +1 to command in all situations.)

Modern military officer's training (+2 command when on the defensive against a combined land/air assault due to extensive knowledge about how to quickly and effectively setup a trench based defensive system and how to make improvised Anti-Aircraft weaponry. +1 command when using a combined arms assault while on the offensive. Lastly gives +1 command when in charge of an infantry force with fire-arms and artillery support, no matter how primitive or advanced said weapons and artillery are.)

War, war never changes (Due to a large amount of experience in warfare while on the frontlines himself, this man knows just how much it can affect the people fighting in it and will do anything in his power to assist his men into surviving the physical wounds gained and overcoming the psychological scars it creates. Both his own men and his allies know this and are proud to stand by this man's side all the more because of it. +1 morale to any and all friendly forces, +20% chance of having wounded soldiers survive the fighting)

Born to fight (+2 command when fighting on land)

Hero of the downtrodden (He will always fight for the rights of those that have very little or none, no matter the cost to him personally or what positions he will reach in life. This will oft cause him to class with the less scrupulous members of the Nobility. Gives +4 love from the working class/commoners, -2 love from the higher class/ nobility)

PTSD (Due to long-term experience with wars and the death of many friends, comrades and innocents in said wars, this person has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This causes him to be quick to anger not only when people have no respect towards the causes he and his comrades fought, bled and died for, but also when they look down on those that he feels have at some point gone through what he went through in some way shape or form. +4 love from others that have experience with war, -1 love from those not experienced with conflict, +25% chance of acting impulsively when people look down on him or any other soldier that fights for a cause he can respect.)

Courageous leader (+3 morale)

My enemy is the media (-1 morale due to past and present problems with the press)

Great general (+3 to command in battle)

Infantry commander (+1 command and +2 morale when leading an army mainly consisting of infantry forces into battle)

Shield of the innocent (After seeing civilians die in battle and being helpless to stop the slaughter, this man has resolved to never again be helpless in such a situation and will also inspire those under his command to follow that same ideal. Will activate when the opponent actively threatens the lives of innocent civilians. Gives +1 command, +6 morale for all friendly forces, +2 melee attack and +4 charge bonus for the entire army when active.)

Drillmaster (+2 to Command when leading Infantry Units, +5% to infantry unit's campaign movement range)

Good defender (+1 to command when defending on land)

Multilingual (This person has the ability to speak more than 3 languages, both enabling easier diplomacy and giving him more prestige in the eyes of nearly every member of the population, though mainly so for the nobility. +5% chance of convincing people your argument is correct, +2 love from the nobility, +1 love from the lower classes, +5 diplomatic prestige)

Hero of the Army (+4 to Morale in all Battles)

Mentioned in dispatches (+1 to morale in all battles, +1 to command when leading infantry units)

 **Requirements to recruit**

Special units are referring to specific people, the 'hero' units and leaders of their factions, which means that it is impossible to actually recruit them outside of personally convincing them to join your side over whatever group they are siding with now.

 **General Pierre D'Alain**

Category: Leader  
Class: General  
Men: 1  
Range: - (will change in the future, but currently doesn't have a ranged weapon)  
Accuracy: - (Normally 50 on average, with runes active 60 on average depending somewhat on the weapon)  
Reloading skill: - (Normally 30 on average, with runes active 40. How much higher or lower it will be depends near completely on the weapon used.)  
Melee attack: 18 (With runes active 27)  
Charge bonus: 20 (With runes active 30)  
Defence: 18  
Morale: 16 (24 when steel convictions activates)  
Command ability: 7 to 12 command general depending on the circumstances  
Army bonus morale: +6 to +8 morale

Pierre D'Alain is a 190 cm tall 42 year old former member of the French Grand Armée who reached the rank of sergeant, however he left the army shortly after his husband was killed in the line of duty. During his service he was a combat engineer and mechanic, which basically meant he built bridges, camps, roads, and everything else expected of a member of the engineer corps, but at the same time he had also enjoyed the training of a combat mechanic, meaning he could make quick repairs to vehicles, weapons and communication devices. This combination has assisted him well after he left the military at age 34, and after a short re-education started working as a mechanic for a car rental service in the outskirts of Paris.

Life was good for him, though he never fully got over the loss of his love, he did find peace in the act of caring for the children of his sister, with whom he kept a good bond. This changed however at age 41, when his sister, her husband and their two children died in a car accident. Having lost everything he cared about threw him into a heavy depression, which got even worse when he lost his job not a month later after a change of management happened at the company he worked for, where it was decided to fire him and the other ex-military personnel employed there for them being too 'militant' for the new owners views, throwing dozens of men and women alike out of their jobs all over the country.

While in this depression, Creative Assembly reached out to him and gave him the option of becoming one of the field-testers for their VR technology, which he rapidly agreed to after reading the contract. He, unlike nearly all other members of the project, worked at the Rome Total War section first, and was placed over to the Empire Total War section after they finished the Rome Total War: VR Edition development. Both the current and previous project have done much to drag him out of his depressed state, though he is still often cold and also very slow to trust. However after he had worked on the current project for only slightly more than two weeks, he and 3 of his co-workers were teleported out of their VR chambers by way of a portal created by a young mage from another world.

Strangely enough due to a combination of outside interference and the way that the VR machines worked, instead of just the 4 of them being transported to Halkeginia in their jumpsuits, they instead appeared with the clothing, gear and armies that they would have had in the VR session, which meant they were now commanding thousands of men armed and equipped with 18th century military gear in what seemed to be a medieval fantasy world.

 **Abilities  
**

Resistant to morale shocks

Can rally routing troops

Inspires nearby units

Modern military training (Gives superior physical conditioning and a 50% higher capability with modern weapons/vehicles. Also allows to create improvised grenades and other explosives with greater ease. Also heightens ability with any and all fire-arms by +5 accuracy.)

Steel conviction (When fighting for something or someone he fiercely believes in on the battlefield, it strengthens his morale to the point routing him is impossible, no matter what happens.)

Good stamina

Grappling hooks

Slightly degraded Gandalfr runes (These runes give half the bonuses that similar full runes would give to a person, in this case a 50% increase of physical abilities, half of the increase in ranged abilities but still give a high level of competence with controlling any vehicle meant for war. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

Mechanic (Can do field repairs on vehicles due to both military training and previous experience.)

 **Technological abilities**

Train the mechanics (Allows this person to train vehicle mechanics, currently not available due to there first needing to be vehicles to train them with)

Better machinery (25% increase of efficiency in machinery designed by him, with factory building speed also rising by 20%. Will only become active once installed as a province commander or researcher.)

 **Traits  
**

PTSD (Due to long-term experience with wars and the death of many friends, comrades and innocents in said wars, this person has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This causes him to be quick to anger not only when people have no respect towards the causes he and his comrades fought, bled and died for, but also when they look down on those that he feels have at some point gone through what he went through in some way shape or form. +4 love from others that have experience with war, -1 love from those not experienced with conflict, +25% chance of acting impulsively when people look down on him or any other soldier that fights for a cause he can respect.)

Mentioned in dispatches (+1 morale)

War, war never changes (Due to a large amount of experience in warfare while on the frontlines himself, this man knows just how much it can affect the people fighting in it and will do anything in his power to assist his men into surviving the physical wounds gained and overcoming the psychological scars it creates. Both his own men and his allies know this and are proud to stand by this man's side all the more because of it. +1 morale to any and all friendly forces, +20% chance of having wounded soldiers survive the fighting)

Courageous general (+3 morale)

Born cavalryman (+2 command when leading cavalry units)

Aggressive general (+2 command when attacking)

Fought on the line (As this man was once a simple soldier fighting on the front line as well, his speeches make a much deeper impression on the men and inspire them more than the same speeches would from most other officers, especially those about the defence of their homeland against aggressor's. +1 morale in offensive battles, +2 morale in defensive battles.)

Superior General (+2 to Command in Land Battles)

Support crew (Due to being part of such a unit himself in the past, he knows how important support units are during combat and as such manages to get the best of the best for this job. +1 morale, +25% chance of being able to repair mechanised forces after a battle, wounded soldiers have a +10% higher chance of surviving the battle, +5% upkeep costs for all units)

Machines of war (Due to long term experience with modern vehicles, this man will be able to easily reverse engineer any vehicle baring even the slightest resemblance to modern vessels of war. This means that as long as one still semi-working example of a vehicle can be found, he can reverse engineer a lot of its technologies allowing them to build their own, if slightly inferior, versions of it.)

Hero of the downtrodden (He will always fight for the rights of those that have very little or none, no matter the cost to him personally or what positions he will reach in life. This will oft cause him to class with the less scrupulous members of the Nobility. Gives +4 love from the working class/commoners, -2 love from the higher class/ nobility)

Cunning General (+1 to Command during Ambushes)

Born to Fight (2 to Command when fighting on land)

Multilingual (This person has the ability to speak more than 3 languages, both enabling easier diplomacy and giving him more prestige in the eyes of nearly every member of the population, though mainly so for the nobility. +5% chance of convincing people your argument is correct, +2 love from the nobility, +1 love from the lower classes, +5 diplomatic prestige)

 **General Steve Churchill**

Category: Leader  
Class: General  
Men: 1  
Range: 70  
Accuracy: 60 (50 when on horseback, 70 when on foot with runes active, 60 when on horseback with runes active, 65 when on a ship without the runes active, 75 when on a ship with runes active)  
Reloading skill: 60 (30 when on horseback, 70 with runes active on foot, 40 on horseback with runes active, 65 when on a ship without runes active, 75 when on a ship with runes active)  
Ammunition: 15  
Melee attack: 18 (20 when on horseback without runes active, 30 when on horseback with runes active, 27 when on foot with runes active, 23 when on a ship without runes active, 34.5 when on a ship with runes active.)  
Charge bonus: 15 (22 on horseback, 23 when runes are active on foot, 33 on horseback with runes active, 20 when on a ship without runes active, 30 when on a ship with runes active)  
Defence: 16 (21 when on a ship)  
Morale: 16 (24 when steel convictions becomes active)  
Recruitment cost: -  
Upkeep cost: £4 (spent on food, equipment and ammunition only)  
Command ability: As general between 6 and 8 command capability, as an admiral between 13 and 26 command stars both depending on the circumstances.  
Army bonus morale: when on land it is between +4 and +6 morale, when at sea it is +5 morale

General Steve Churchill, formerly captain, is a 190 cm tall 35 year old war veteran that served in Her Majesties Royal Navy for 16 years, before being forced out of service because the frigate HRMS under his command got into a battle with a ship belonging to the Syrian military after they caught said ship attacking what they thought to be a cargo vessel. It had turned out to be a cargo vessel yes, but one that was supplying humanitarian supplies to Syrian rebels and as such Steve's actions were against the non-interference public opinion regarding this civiol war back home. This forced high-command's hands in throwing him out of the Navy after large scale riots and protest marches demanding this action.

He wasn't abandoned by the government completely though, with him silently being put in the naval reserve, given all the bonuses a decorated war veteran was supposed to get and more. It still came as a hit, however unknown to him, what was to come still was much worse. When he arrived back home it was to find his daughter Elisabeth badly injured and softly crying in her room and even though he raced her to the hospital immediately, she died from her injuries little more then a few hours afterwards. During these hours he was constantly by her side, talking to her, crying for her and feeling completely and utterly helpless, not being able to do a single thing for the person he cared about the most.

He would find out that she had been injured this badly by her mother, who had not only become abusive during his time away, but had also been cheating on him with another man. When the young girl found out about that last fact on the very day her father was supposed to return home, her mother became enraged and tried to scare her into not telling Steve. When Elisabeth didn't agree to this fast enough to the woman's opinion, the attempt at scaring turned into hitting the girl while enraged with any object she could find, after which Elisabeth was locked into her room by her mother while the woman herself tried to escape the country.

Upon learning this Steve wanted to go after her the first moment he could, only to learn that she hadn't gone far: she had crashed into a building with her car and had died upon impact. His life now completely in tatters, with near everyone he cared for dead, out of a job he could have lost himself in to suppress the pain and no family or friends to turn to, he sunk into a very deep depression. Sometime later and after a failed suicide attempt, he was contacted by Creative Assembly to work on the preparations for a VR project of theirs, which he agreed to join just to try to lose himself in something.

From that day on while it worked wonders for him to have some friends he could trust once again, he is still filled with pain over all that had happened to him in his life, though he tries to cover it up by acting as if nothing is wrong and being peppy in public. After the first project was finished a few months later, they asked if he wanted to sign up for the VR project itself, which he agreed to, however after he had worked on that project for only slightly more than two weeks, he and 3 of his co-workers were teleported out of their VR chambers by way of a portal created by a young mage from another world.

Strangely enough due to a combination of outside interference and the way that the VR machines worked, instead of just the 4 of them being transported to Halkeginia in their jumpsuits, they instead appeared with the clothing, gear and armies that they would have had in the VR session, which meant they were now commanding thousands of men armed and equipped with 18th century military gear in what seemed to be a medieval fantasy world.

 **Abilities**

Resistant to morale shocks

Can rally routing troops

Inspires nearby units

Modern military training (Gives superior physical conditioning and a 50% higher capability with modern weapons/vehicles. Also allows to create improvised grenades and other explosives with greater ease. Also heightens ability with any and all fire-arms by +5 accuracy.)

At home at sea (A +5 to any and all physical abilities once on a ship sailing on the sea.)

Modern naval training (+50% capability in operating any naval vessel, +125% capability in operating any modern naval vessel, +150% capability in operating a modern British naval vessel.)

Steel conviction (When fighting for something or someone he fiercely believes in on the battlefield, it strengthens his morale to the point routing him is impossible, no matter what happens.)

Good stamina

Grappling hooks

Slightly degraded Gandalfr runes (These runes give half the bonuses that similar full runes would give to a person, in this case a 50% increase of physical abilities, half of the increase in ranged abilities but still give a high level of competence with controlling any vehicle meant for war. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Technological abilities**

Fire and advance

Fire by rank

Square formation

Platoon firing

Socket bayonet

 **Traits**

Mentioned in dispatches (+1 morale, with +1 command when leading infantry units)

War, war never changes (Due to a large amount of experience in warfare while on the frontlines himself, this man knows just how much it can affect the people fighting in it and will do anything in his power to assist his men into surviving the physical wounds gained and overcoming the psychological scars it creates. Both his own men and his allies know this and are proud to stand by this man's side all the more because of it. +1 morale to any and all friendly forces, +20% chance of having wounded soldiers survive the fighting)

Courageous general (+3 morale when on land)

My enemy is the media (-1 morale due to past and present problems with the press)

Aggressive general (+2 command when attacking on land)

Aggressive commander (+2 command when attacking on sea)

An admiral born (+1 to morale in sea battles, +5 to sea campaign movement, -5% to naval upkeep)

Courageous Admiral (+2 to morale in sea battles +1 to command at sea)

Fighting admiral (+1 to command at sea, +4 to command when attacking)

Frigate captain (+1 to command with frigates)

None shall pass (+1 to command at sea +2 to command with frigates)

Hero of the downtrodden (He will always fight for the rights of those that have very little or none, no matter the cost to him personally or what positions he will reach in life. This will oft cause him to class with the less scrupulous members of the Nobility. Gives +4 love from the working class/commoners, -2 love from the higher class/ nobility)

Modern naval officers training (Gives +2 command and +1 morale when commanding a naval force in general and +4 command when commanding a force mostly comprised of modern naval vessels)

Infantry commander (+1 command and +2 morale when leading an army mainly consisting of infantry forces into battle)

Confident general (+1 to command in land battles)

Naval Hero (+5 to command at sea)

 **Requirements to recruit:  
**

Special units are referring to specific people, the 'hero' units and leaders of their factions, which means that it is impossible to actually recruit them outside of personally convincing them to join your side over whatever group they are siding with now.

Units from Great Britain

 **Ferguson Riflemen**

Category: Infantry

Class: Light Infantry

Men: 80

Range: 125

Accuracy: 70 (74 with runes)

Reloading skill: 35 (39 with runes)

Ammunition: 20

Melee attack: 4 (4.8 with runes)

Charge bonus: 6 (7.2 with runes)

Defence: 10

Morale: 7

Unit limit: 1

Turns to train: 2

Recruitment cost: £840

Upkeep cost: £210

Ferguson Riflemen are scouts and snipers, who harass the enemy by targeting officers and leaders.  
Major Patrick Ferguson's remarkable and patented flintlock rifle is a breech-loading weapon, with a cunning screw mechanism that opens the breech for loading and still seals the chamber tightly for firing. In the hands of a well-trained man, firing the piece is rapid; the laborious business of muzzle loading is no more! The rifling makes it accurate and deadly!

Historically, Ferguson intended his gun to go into the hands of an elite force, under officers of enterprise and daring, who would move rapidly, use cover, and could deliver accurate and withering fire. In practice, the weapon was not a success, because it was difficult to manufacture in quantity and somewhat fragile in the rough conditions of a battlefield: the screw mechanism would jam if not treated with respect. After Ferguson was wounded in action, his critics lost no time in equipping the unit with Brown Bess muskets, and then eventually disbanding Ferguson's prize riflemen.

 **Abilities**

Can guard

Can hide in buildings

Can hide in light scrub

Can hide in long grass

Can hide in woodland

Can skirmish

Good stamina

Grappling hooks

Heavily degraded Gandalfr runes (These heavily degraded versions of the original ones only give a fifth of the original's boost, but are still a force to be reckoned with. This means that while they get some more competence when wielding any weapon or driving any vehicle, their ability will only increase slightly. However the degradation with the ability to control vehicles is a lot less prominent than it is with any of the other abilities given by the runes, allowing them to still reach mediocre level of competence with any vehicle. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Technological abilities**

Can place stakes

Chevaux de frise

Earthworks

Fougasse

Improved fougasse

Light infantry tactics

Volley fire

 **Requirements to recruit** :

Technology

Screw Breech

Building (minimum level)

Army Staff College

 **Current number:  
** 1 full unit of 80 soldiers

 **General's Bodyguard**

Category: Cavalry

Class: General

Men: 32

Melee attack: 9 (10.8 with runes)

Charge bonus: 14 (16.8 with runes)

Defence: 10

Morale: 12

Recruitment cost: £800

Upkeep cost: £60

These tough warriors and soldiers have only one task: keeping their commander alive and well in the swirling chaos of battle.

A general can only do his duty properly if these men keep rough and unpleasant fellows from interrupting his calm deliberations about how to kill as many of the enemy as possible for as little loss as possible.

Only the most loyal and fiercest fighters are assigned to a general's bodyguard. Good manners are a bonus, of course, but a strong sword arm and a deadly aim are more use! Their equipment is generally of the finest quality, and their pay is often supplemented from the general's own pocket: they have a sound financial interest in keeping him alive, as well as their honour in carrying out a duty successfully!

 **Abilities**

Can rally routing troops

Inspires nearby units

To hell and back (Due to general Saito's brave behaviour during battles while having these men by his side, the men take heart seeing them together, +2 morale when leading an army with this as the command unit.)

Nerves of steel (Due to a large amount of experience in leading troops to victory against superior opponents when having these men as his personal bodyguard, the general has an easier time creating and putting to work good tactics and strategies when in command of it. +1 Command when facing numerically superior armies with this unit as the command unit.)  
Heavily degraded Gandalfr runes (These heavily degraded versions of the original ones only give a fifth of the original's boost, but are still a force to be reckoned with. This means that while they get some more competence when wielding any weapon or driving any vehicle, their ability will only increase slightly. However the degradation with the ability to control vehicles is a lot less prominent than it is with any of the other abilities given by the runes, allowing them to still reach mediocre level of competence with any vehicle. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Requirements to recruit:**

This unit type can only be formed upon the recruitment of a new general, with all non-standard abilities and looks depending on the general in question.

 **Current number** :

1 full unit of 32 mounted soldiers.

 **British settler infantry**

Category: Infantry

Class: Militia

Men: 160

Range: 70

Accuracy: 25 (29 with runes)

Reloading skill: 10 (14 with runes)

Ammunition: 10

Melee attack: 4 (4.8 with runes)

Charge bonus: 4 (4.8 with runes)

Defence: 5

Morale: 8

Turns to train: 4

Recruitment cost: £700

Upkeep cost: £200

These troops are most often colonists and other seekers of a better or at the very least different life outside of their home country, each with their own reasoning but one shared goal in mind: to ease the settling of other areas by their home-country. Though these specific units are a special case in the fact that instead of following the will of a country, they follow the will individuals and will ease the settling of begotten areas in the name of either their general, Lord Saito or their political leader, Lady Louise de la Vallière.

The main disadvantage of these units is that they take longer to train/recruit then most units of similar quality because of the fact that there is a high chance that they won't be able to go back to their homeland ever again even when surviving all battles until their retirement, meaning that only those with extreme levels of either wanderlust, patriotism, desperation or a combination of all three are likely to join.

 **Abilities**

Can guard

Can hide in light scrub

Can hide in woodland

Grappling hooks

Permanent Station (when this is activated, the troops will become part of the garrison of the area it is activated in and cannot be moved to outside the area anymore, but will have 50% lower upkeep cost and cause the activation of the For the homeland ability.)

For the homeland (when permanently stationed in an area, they will spread goodwill for whatever group they represent through both word and deed. Causes lower chance of unrest and a larger amount of happiness among the population to whatever ruler they represent.)

To death or victory (Upon seeing the conviction these men carry with them into battle, nearby units will gain heart and be near impossible to rout.)

Heavily degraded Gandalfr runes (These heavily degraded versions of the original ones only give a fifth of the original's boost, but are still a force to be reckoned with.  
This means that while they get some more competence when wielding any weapon or driving any vehicle, their ability will only increase slightly. Though the degradation with the abilities to control vehicles is a lot less than it is with any other abilities, allowing them to still reach mediocre level of ability with any vehicle.  
Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Technological abilities**

Socket bayonet

Chevaux de frise

Upgraded earthworks (At the start of the battle they can always build earthworks/trenches without their army having to have been stationed in the location for a while. They can also build as many of these as they want mid battle, provided they are neither attacked during said construction and given the time to completely finish it before being given another order. Also allows for the construction of forts on the campaign map on any town/settlement in a region they want, though these cost twice as much as a normal fort. One advantage for this is that they can also be made in enemy territory, giving you a strong forward operating base.)

 **Requirements to recruit:**

Technology:  
National Pride (This when researched gives your people a strong feeling of national identity and causes them to feel united, despite their differences, with fellow members of said country)

Mass production muskets (When researched allows you to produce muskets on a large enough to scale to equip your regular troops with them.)

Building (minimum level):

Magistrate

Location:

Any region belonging to the factions home theatre.

 **Current number:**

2 full units of 160 soldiers each.

 **British line infantry**

Category: Infantry

Class: Line Infantry

Men: 160

Range: 70

Accuracy: 40 (44 with runes)

Reloading skill: 30 (34 with runes)

Ammunition: 15

Melee attack: 6 (7.2 with runes)

Charge bonus: 9 (10.8 with runes)

Defence: 15

Morale: 8

Turns to train: 2

Recruitment cost: £1140

Upkeep cost: £280

These musket-armed troops use massed volleys to break an enemy, relying on discipline to withstand any counter fire.

"Marching regiments" or "line battalions" make up the majority of units in European-style armies. They are so called because they form the line of battle, not because they always deploy in lines. Indeed, over time the capabilities of line infantry should improve as new tactics, drill and weaponry are developed.

These soldiers carry muzzle-loading, smoothbore muskets firing lead balls as wide as a man's thumb. These are inaccurate weapons, effective only over 200 paces or so and when fired in massed volleys. The ability to fire and reload with machine-like regularity with shot and bullet flying and comrades falling all around is what wins battles.

Historically, in many armies colonels received a fee to raise regiments, which remained their personal property and commands. They jealously guarded their rights to appoint friends, relatives and hangers-on as regimental officers. This contractor system, however, allowed unscrupulous officers to make handsome profits by pocketing the pay of non-existent soldiers. The better colonels did take a pride in their regiments, spending their own fortunes on good uniforms and weapons. The capabilities of a "standard" line infantry unit therefore varied between nations and over time. It wasn't until the 1760s that anything approaching uniformity of drill, equipment and regulations became the norm.

Line infantry regiments remained unchanged throughout the period, and their organisational pattern still forms the basis of modern military units.

 **Abilities:**

Can guard

Can hide in woodland

Grappling hooks

Resistant to morale shocks

Heavily degraded Gandalfr runes (These heavily degraded versions of the original ones only give a fifth of the original's boost, but are still a force to be reckoned with. This means that while they get some more competence when wielding any weapon or driving any vehicle, their ability will only increase slightly. However the degradation with the ability to control vehicles is a lot less prominent than it is with any of the other abilities given by the runes, allowing them to still reach mediocre level of competence with any vehicle. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Technological abilities:**

Socket Bayonet

Chevaux de frise

Earthworks

Fire and advance

Fire by rank

Square formation

 **Requirements to recruit:**

Technology:  
Mass production muskets (When researched allows you to produce muskets on a large enough to scale to equip your troops with them)

Building (minimum level):  
Barracks

or  
Military governor's barracks

 **Current number:  
** 1 full unit of 160 troops

 **Royal marines**

Category: Infantry

Class: Line Infantry

Men: 160

Range: 70

Accuracy: 40 (44 with runes)

Reloading skill: 25 (29 with runes)

Ammunition: 15

Melee attack: 7 (8.4 with runes)

Charge bonus: 9 (10.8 with runes)

Defence: 10

Morale: 8

Unit limit: 1

Turns to train: 0

Recruitment cost: 1250

Upkeep cost: 330

The royal marines are very different from usual different versions of line infantry, in the way that they are actually slightly worse then regular line infantry units in ranged combat, but have a large advantage both in close quarters and morale wise. Not only this, but the way to recruit them is also very different from regular units, as instead of recruiting them in a town, you can recruit them by having a fleet at the port, where you then draw from the crew members of those ships to fill the units you are recruiting. This is way of recruiting can be useful if you have ships that are too expensive to repair but you need armies fast, since they appear inside the port as newly selectable units immediately.

While this makes them mainly troops to recruit in situations of dire need, they have a few other advantages, the main of which is the fact that they can build ships in an area without a shipyard, just a beach that ships can drop troops off on and that they can board ships from. However, these ships are literally trade cogs with very few to no guns, so while useful to cross a short distance, the danger of meeting enemy ships on long journeys over the ocean is too great to actually use them efficiently for that type of travel as their only effective measure against opposing ships is getting in boarding range, then trying to capture their ship through boarding.

 **Abilities:**

Can guard

Can hide in woodland

Grappling hooks

Resistant to morale shocks

Improvised ships (Allows for the unit to build improvised ships without needing a port)

Crafting Rafts (Allows the unit to build rafts with which rivers can be crossed without needing bridges, both on the campaign map and on the battlefield map)

Heavily degraded Gandalfr runes (These heavily degraded versions of the original ones only give a fifth of the original's boost, but are still a force to be reckoned with. This means that while they get some more competence when wielding any weapon or driving any vehicle, their ability will only increase slightly. However the degradation with the ability to control vehicles is a lot less prominent than it is with any of the other abilities given by the runes, allowing them to still reach mediocre level of competence with any vehicle. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Technological abilities:  
**

Socket bayonet

Fire and advance

Fire by rank

Square formation

 **Requirements to recruit:**

Technology:  
Mass production muskets (When researched allows you to produce muskets on a large enough to scale to equip your troops with them)  
Naval infantry training (When researched allows for the ability to retrain naval personnel into land units)

Reqruitment pool:  
Nearby naval units with at least 160 crew members

 **Current number:**  
1 full unit of 160 soldiers

 **British marines**

Category: Infantry

Class: Melee Infantry

Men: 160

Melee attack: 9 (10.8 with runes)

Charge bonus: 10 (12 with runes)

Defence: 16

Morale: 10

Turns to train: 0

Recruitment cost: 900

Upkeep cost: 150

The way to recruit these soldiers them is very different from regular units, as instead of recruiting them in a town, you can recruit them by having a fleet at the port, where you then draw from the crew members of those ships to fill the units you are recruiting. This is way of recruiting can be useful if you have ships that are too expensive to repair but you need armies fast, since they appear inside the port as newly selectable units immediately.

Outside of this they will mainly be useful in both the American theatre where you can use them to bypass the land barrier blocking the two seas to deliver them quickly to any destination in the mid-American region and the American Westcoast, or lastly as a mobile unit that can easily travel between all the Caribbean islands without needing regular ships to constantly wait around to pick them up, giving you some freedom to move trapped troops off the islands in case your local fleet gets taken out and your ports blockaded.

One of the main advantages this unit has outside of its special abilities is its combination of high morale and low upkeep cost, causing it to be a good garrison unit for cities if needed.

 **Abilities**

Grappling hooks

Improvised ships (Allows for the unit to build improvised ships without needing a port)

Crafting Rafts (Allows the unit to build rafts with which rivers can be crossed without needing bridges, both on the campaign map and on the battlefield map)

Madman's rampage (once activated, won't stop until the battle ends. Has the advantage of making rout impossible, and gives +3 to both melee attack damage and charge damage bonus. However, once activated you also have no control over the unit anymore, and it will attack random opponents. Good as a distraction or sacrifice to give your army a chance to reform/to give cover to a strategic retreat, not much else.)

Heavily degraded Gandalfr runes (These heavily degraded versions of the original ones only give a fifth of the original's boost, but are still a force to be reckoned with. This means that while they get some more competence when wielding any weapon or driving any vehicle, their ability will only increase slightly. However the degradation with the ability to control vehicles is a lot less prominent than it is with any of the other abilities given by the runes, allowing them to still reach mediocre level of competence with any vehicle. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Technological abilities**

Square formation

 **Requirements to recruit:**

Technology:  
Mass production muskets (When researched allows you to produce muskets on a large enough to scale to equip your troops with them)  
Naval infantry training (When researched allows for the ability to retrain naval personnel into land units)

Recruitment pool:  
At minimum 1 ship with 160 or more crew members

 **Current number:**  
1 unit of 160 soldiers

 **24-lber Howitzer Foot Artillery**

Category: Artillery  
Class: Foot artillery  
Men: 24  
Guns: 4  
Firepower: 40  
Range: 350  
Accuracy: 40 (44 with runes)  
Reloading skill: 25 (29 with runes)  
Melee attack: 6 (7.2 with runes)  
Charge bonus: 6 (7.2 with runes)  
Defence: 4  
Morale: 3  
Turns to train: 3  
Recruitment cost: £650  
Upkeep cost: £160

Howitzers send shells plunging into enemy formations and over defences, making cover irrelevant.

Howitzers fall somewhere between guns and mortars, the other main artillery types. They have a limited mobility, like guns. Like mortars, they do not fire straight at the target, but send shots high into the air to plunge down on a target (and over anything in the way). By angling the barrel and changing the propellant charge used, howitzers have an impressive flexibility in shell trajectories. Experienced crews can lob explosive shells and incendiary rounds with great accuracy into a "beaten zone", making life utterly miserable and very short for anyone within it. In close action, they can fire canister rounds directly into enemy formations, like giant sawn-off shotguns.

The term foot artillery applies because the gunners walk into battle alongside the draft animals. Like all artillery, the rating of these howitzers refers to the nominal weight of shot fired; loading the heavier pieces made for strong gunners!

Historically, howitzers – like many other artillery pieces – were far from standardised weapons in the 18th Century. Shells and spare parts made in one foundry did not always fit another foundry's pieces, even if the calibre was nominally identical and the two guns were part of the same battery in the field. It took a good deal of effort and argument to get foundries to standardise barrels and ancillary equipment, even in a single country.

 **Abilities**

Can hide in woodland

Slow-moving

Heavily degraded Gandalfr runes (These heavily degraded versions of the original ones only give a fifth of the original's boost, but are still a force to be reckoned with. This means that while they get some more competence when wielding any weapon or driving any vehicle, their ability will only increase slightly. However the degradation with the ability to control vehicles is a lot less prominent than it is with any of the other abilities given by the runes, allowing them to still reach mediocre level of competence with any vehicle. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Technological abilities**

Gabionade

 **Requirements to recruit**

Technology  
Explosive shells

Building (minimum level):  
Ordnance Board

 **Current number:  
** 1 full unit of 24 soldiers


	2. Unexpected meetings

Empire of Zero part 2

AN: Ok, so in this part there will once again be a unit codex at the end, though this time it will not only show off a unit that was brought over from the Empire Total War game, but also some enemy units. Do keep in mind that I started writing this chapter just after I uploaded the other chapter, shortly after posting I left to go on a vacation with some family members. At the time I started writing this I didn't have internet on my laptop for 7 days because of the fact that the location of the vacation is a bungalow park in the middle of nowhere.

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Very nice place to rest and relax, very bad if you want to do anything related to the remainder of the world. Because of that this chapter will most likely have large parts of text written before I've had the chance to read whatever comments there were about the last one. While that will only be the first 25 pages or so, that's still some 7k words.

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Anyways enough of that, I hope you guys will enjoy this chapter, as always, please review on what I can do better, though no outright flames since I will not take those seriously nor can I actually better myself with those. However I do know I have likely left some mistakes in this even after checking it over for nearly two weeks before I put it online.

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It is after all 110 pages long in my word document so the chance of me actually managing to pick out all mistakes isn't high. Thus you are better off writing a well-reasoned argument about what went wrong, giving me the chance to do better either next time or during the rewrite of this. Thank you for the consideration.

 **Disclaimer:**

 **I do not own anything related to the Zero No Tsukaima franchise, nor will I probably ever do so, with the only thing I own in this story being the OC's I introduce. For the Total War side of this, I only own a digital copy from Empire Total War (plus most of its DLC's) and a CD Gold version of Rome Total War, and a such I do not own the actual rights to anything, that is in the capable hands of Creative Assembly (though I was at one point not so sure about that capability when they made Rome Total War 2, but hey, they managed to do much better again afterwards, so they're still the most capable at handling strategy games in my opinion) I also do not make any money off of this story in any way, shape or form.  
** **  
**

 _.  
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''Language'' = Regular spoken language in a language that is natural to the person. (Meaning one of the languages that they speak so fluently they literally think to themselves in that language. And yes that doesn't have to be your birth language if you grow up with two or more languages being spoken near you consistently.)

 _._

 _''Language''=_

Text written like this means that it is a language not natural to the person, in the last chapter I made I wrote it down in the language of origin no matter if the person listening to it can understand it or not and you just had to realize if they knew what was being said from the surrounding text.

In this chapter however I'm making it so that as long as the person understands the language but it's not their native language, it will be written in cursive English (for instance while Piet van Vlimmeren can both understand and speak French, it is not his natural language so it will be written in cursive English. However if somebody were to speak to him in for instance Arabic, he just wouldn't understand it at all so it would be written down in cursive Arabic.)

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Language= Text written like this a form of mental communication. For instance the whole VR to reality transition will cause the generals to develop slight psychic bonds with their troops. Not hive-mind level psychic connection, but closer to the level of Jean Grey connecting all X-men team members through their minds connection.

 **.**

 **Language= Text usually involving someone trying to forcibly have another person either submit or perform an action through active mind control. Will also be used by both sides during such a battle if it causes supernatural powers to be exhibited in the outside world or by a single person exerting high levels of supernatural power in a ritual/spell.**

 **With supernatural powers I don't mean regular magic but more like as in close to Godlike levels of power being used to force a person's will or desires upon reality (like say teleporting a large group of people between worlds while also granting a large number of them actual physical bodies, life and free will).**

Steve POV

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Sure thing my friend, continue on with the negotiations, I'll organise our forces into setting up camp. This is all very interesting, but also worrying, an advanced society that loves to act out the past would most likely have been easier to deal with then a society with actual energy controlling humans calling themselves mages.

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The good part about this though is that we almost certainly won't have to deal with advanced fire-arms considering how all their constructs only had melee weaponry as far as what we could see. Though they do know fire-arms exist considering they used at least somewhat correct terminology for the one that Piet was using but seemed to be surprised that we used them centuries ago so the advanced fire-arms can still be crossed out for the most part.

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A disadvantage is though that there will most likely be no modern plumbing system in place, which will heighten the chance of us or other members of our armed forces getting sick way too much for me to be comfortable with. Lets hope these people have some kind of replacement system for it that is based on their 'magic'. If not, we'll need to create a sewer system the moment we get an area where we can start up a town or city.

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Though for most of us, this might just be an escape away from home, away from being tortured with the knowledge of all those we cared about that aren't alive anymore. A second chance at life so to speak, with both new possibilities we never even considered but also new dangers we always considered little more then fairy tales and things of a past that is far behind us? Food for thought for later on, right now I'll need to get started on that encampment for our troops to temporarily reside in.

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Hmm ok this will be interesting to actually work out. As far as I can see we do not have enough equipment to setup an encampment for an army of our size, the only ones with the gear and supplies to build an encampment are the settler infantry units and we only have four groups of them in total with each only having enough supplies to make temporary residences for four or five times their number. We'll need to ask the locals for supplies, anyone volunteering to go ask?

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While I let it be silent for a moment mentally, the rider rode up to me and spoke relatively loudly _''Commandante, nous havons permission for la settlement du une campe''_ Why the hell are you speaking in what even I can understand is badly mangled French mixed with a few English words lieutenant? After a moment I got a reply.

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Because sir I wanted to make our regular troops seem a bit incapable of communicating efficiently, so that if they have some kind of listening spell listening in on us they will underestimate our capabilities if for some reason there aren't multiple generals in the field.

Since they probably know you and the other generals can communicate perfectly fine with each other, but they do not know anything about the communication methods between the troops of different groups that they consider to belong to different factions, especially since we were originally marching to fight each-other.

I have to admit that is a good idea. ''Good, go back and report our need for more supplies to create a camp.'' Understood lieutenant, and well done for coming up with the idea on the spot. Can you go to the castle and tell one of the other generals about our supply problems in public? This way at least some of them won't understand fully that we don't have to talk in person to each other to transmit information.

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He nodded, then saluted and yelled out loud _''Oui Commandante!''_ while mentally replying with a Sir, yes sir! After which he rode off in the direction of the castle again. Wait a second… damnit reacting to messages will now take a whole damn lot longer if we keep having to send people back and forth to verbally bring over the orders to keep up the ruse of us not having a reliable form of fast communication… we need to introduce the telegraph or something similar to this place fast.

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3rd person POV, inside the dining room of the castle with the diplomats

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Once a servant had arrived to tend to the guests horses, the group walked inside with the headmaster leading the group over to the dining hall to continue both conversation and negotiations, where the headmaster started up once again ''Please sit down everyone, doing so will make this conversation a bit less uncomfortable, while my secretary will ask one of the maids to supply some food for your guards.''

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While seemingly somewhat wary, after a few moments of exchanging looks between each other and getting hopeful looks shot in their direction by Louise, the three generals agreed and sat down, with Louise and Saito in the middle of their group, while their 4 men decided to sit on the outer edges of their group at the main table. Meanwhile Matilda stepped outside and asked a black-haired maid that walked past to get some refreshments for a group of 13 people.

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''So, while a round of introductions has probably already happened outside, I hope nobody minds if a new one happens now to ease communication.'' After getting no rebuke from any of the people currently there, he nods to himself and continues ''I will start this one myself, my name is Osmond Osman and I am the headmaster of the Tristanian Academy of Magic, which the building we are currently in is part of.'' To answer the strange looks he got from some of the extra-dimensional visitors.

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''And no, I'm not joking with the name, that is my actual name. My parents simply had a strange sense of humour.'' After getting some non-plussed looks sent his way, he sighed and motioned for the person next to him to continue, which happened to be Jean Colbert ''My name is Jean Colbert as you already know, and I am a professor at this academy.''

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After this it was Tabitha's turn once again ''Tabitha d'Orleans. Noble from Gallia.'' Kirche who was next spoke, though she was still visibly somewhat shaken from the earlier conversation outside ''My name is Kirche von Zerbst, a member of the Germanian nobility.'' Matilda, who had come back and sat down on the other side of the headmaster while Tabitha was talking, now introduced herself ''I am Matilda Longueville, the headmasters secretary and the main person to go to in case of logistical matters.''

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Saito POV

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Ok so we should also introduce everyone including all the current guards. Shall we let everyone introduce themselves this time around? Also Piet, though it was effective, a bit less thunder and lightning, it probably won't impress them as much when you're sitting down instead of towering over them. I could almost feel Piet grumble at that statement.

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Honestly though while it was necessary at that point, if we keep doing it the whole thing would lose effectiveness at some point in the near future which would be bad if we ever came into a situation where we need to cow people in a non-violent but still aggressive manner afterwards.

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I will not go on the attack but if one of them is stupid enough to do something like the redhead tried back there I will react. Both our men and Ms. Vallière deserve much better than the drivel that she spouted when we were outside. That is probably the best I could expect from him, it's a wonder everyone has been handling this situation so well ever since we arrived here anyways.

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I can all but feel Louise puff up with pride beside me from her inclusion in that statement, that just does it. The moment this is over we're going to look into that girls past and if necessary call whatever equivalent this place has to child services on her family, her level of confidence is somewhere close to that of people that were systematically abused in their childhood. If there is no child services… lets just say that those people won't even dare speak a bad word to Louise ever again once Steve, Piet and Pierre are done with them.

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For the sake of keeping face can you also re-introduce yourself Louise? At least some of them won't know about our ability to non-verbally communicate at some level of range yet, and it is best to keep it that way so we can surprise enemies with it when on the battlefield. I looked at her, as though to ask for confirmation on the idea of re-introducing ourselves, instead of simply wanting to be able to see the emotions on her face.

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I agree, as long as you will explain some more about both it and the world you call home Sir Hiraga. While she communicated this, she looked at me in the physical word and nodded to me, causing me to give her a smile. Most certainly milady, though call me Saito, I was never one for titles and if I'm allowed to call you Louise you should most certainly be allowed to call me by my first name. I got a shy smile in return along with her reply You have yourself a deal Saito.

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Well since Pierre was the one to give our names last time around and they probably have the at least somewhat true impression that I'm the most talkative one of our group, I should start with the introductions this time around. ''My name is Saito Hiraga, or Hiraga Saito as it is pronounced in my homeland. I am a general in the great army of the British Empire, or Great Britain as it is called nowadays.''

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I gave a slight nod to Piet who sat on my left side ''I am called Piet van Vlimmeren, I am the general of the United Provinces forces seen outside, though our name has been changed since the time the scenario of this simulation happened and it is currently called the Netherlands.''

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Wait I know that it's called La Néerlandais in French as I heard him call it that once while he and Pierre were talking about their home countries in French, so it's one of the few words I understand in it, just how deeply does the translation go that it turns around how I understand the language completely? Its almost as if it is second nature to me now?

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While thinking this I heard one of our guards on that side introduce himself as ''Jean-Pierre de Beaufort, member of the generals bodyguard in the French Royal army.'' Hmm it doesn't translate last names though, with only Piet's name it could have been a coincidence, with two different last names from two different languages however it cannot just be one, whomever originally designed this spell must have been a really intuitive and capable person to be able to make it do that.

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For it to be able to get the meaning behind what words are said and thus be able to discern whether something is the name of a person, country or group it not only forces the spell to gain the ability to not translate things when necessary but also to discern the exact intent from the person speaking. Though why does it not keep the names of their armies/countries in the original language? 

While thinking about that I heard the next soldier introduce himself ''My name is Didier de Bordeaux, member of the generals bodyguard in the French Royal army.'' After that it was Louise's turn, causing us to turn towards her ''My name is Louise de la Vallière, I'm a member of the Tristanian nobility and fourth in line for the Tristanian crown.''

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Ok we already had that once but… wait a second… she's fourth in line for the crown?! Looking around the room I can see that pretty much nobody else seems to have expected this either, that statement including the staff members of the local academy except for that headmaster. Wait a minute… I kissed a princess… not the crown princess but still a princess.

.

Why didn't she say anything about this while we were outside? Wait no that information could have turned her into a hostage if we had had hostile intentions, so the whole hiding it was a good idea, though still if she is the fourth in line for the crown then why the hell would she allow that girl Kirche insult her without going against her?

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Her status as a member of the royal family and probably the lowest ranked heir to have a realistic chance to actually become head of state should have given her immunity to that kind of behaviour since any person residing in a foreign country is usually very wary of making a person that is part of the highest levels of the native governmental hierarchy mad at them. 

Miss Vallière I apologize if my behaviour was disrespectful in your eyes, we were treating you like a foreign dignitary while we should have treated you as a member of a foreign monarchy, my deepest apologies. Hopefully that will sooth any problems she had with our behaviour that she was to shy to speak up against.

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Standing up, I then knelt before her to show my respect towards both the title and the person, because being as humble as she is with her rank shows a very strong personality and sense of duty that should be respected. Though that makes the whole thing of hunting down those that are responsible if she has been abused a lot more problematic since those people are most likely also members of the royal family possibly including either parents or older siblings whom will have a higher claim to the throne and thus some level of diplomatic immunity.

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Saito speaks the truth on this matter your highness, we weren't behaving as we should have around royalty, I ask you to forgive our actions and we will do whatever we can to make up for it. Was Pierre's reply, who then also moved to kneel before her, after which Piet chimed in Milady I agree on this with both of my companions and would like to apologize for any misconduct, how can we make up for that?

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While the words might not have seemed so in and of themselves, the emotion in Piet's mental voice showed how much he'd already come to respect and care for this young lady we met less then an hour ago. It took us more then a week to get anything even close to this out of him while she got it within half an hour, she really is something.

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Though his behaviour is somewhat understandable, Louise unconsciously exudes this aura of hidden care for others. I do not understand how the others outside of us do not see it. She's also very beautiful, both inside and out. Maybe not a beauty in the most conventional way, but most certainly beautiful. And also has a near angelic voice to listen to, both in mental and in physical conversation.

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Wait very much not the time for that lets get back on track. And why are Piet and Pierre suddenly looking at me like that? Probably seeing the question written all over my face Piet said in English ''You were talking out loud idiot, though luckily for you it was in English so hopefully for all of us lady Vallière didn't get the ability to understand it from you during the bonding ceremony or she will be embarrassed even further and it could possibly even create a diplomatic incident.

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Especially if the local rules regarding social interaction with potential romantic intentions towards royalty are as strict as they were back home and she takes affront with such things being said in the open like that.'' Shit. Why in Kami's name did I feel the need to fuck this situation over sideways after it already was new territory to begin with?

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I might sometimes accuse the others of not being very social but I'm just as bad myself only on other parts of the subject. As I look up at Louise I see that her expression is focused on something very different, as if she hadn't even noticed that we were talking at all and, damnit my head! AAARRRRGHHH! The pain! What in Kami's name is going on with the information overloads I've gotten in the past fifteen minutes!

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Louise POV (from the moment she re-introduces herself)

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I hear the room fall silent after my declaration with both the men that I've summoned and those that I've known for years being completely surprised by this. The headmaster being the only exception, considering he is the one that I pleaded with for my status to be withheld from public knowledge at the school as much as possible. Some people who looked into me more deeply might have figured it out, but since most only saw me as a failure the number of people that put in that much effort is probably zero or something very close to it.

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Hopefully the men around me won't be mad at me for deceiving them like this outside even though they were supposed to become my familiars, actually they did all become my familiars even, the only difference from normal situations is it being one primary familiar and hundreds if not thousands of minor ones. And well, the whole them having their own free wills of course, but that is besides the point for now.

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Miss Vallière I apologize if my behaviour was disrespectful in your eyes, we were treating you like a foreign dignitary while we should have treated you as a member of a foreign monarchy, my deepest apologies. Saito isn't mad? He thinks I might be mad at them because they didn't treat me as a royal family member immediately?

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Of course I'm not angry, how could they possibly have known about this? As I turn to look at him I suddenly see he is on the ground, kneeling before me… why? Even if I'm a member of royalty, I'm also still only a teenager and the fourth in line for the throne, which as Eleonore loves to remind me doesn't give me all that much importance. I need to get him to stop soon, before his pride is damaged too much from showing such respect and submissiveness towards a failure like me. 

Saito speaks the truth on this matter your highness, we weren't behaving as we should have around royalty, I ask you to forgive our actions and we will do whatever we can to make up for it. Not only Saito, but Mr. Pierre thinks the same way? And not only that but he knelt before me too? Why? I'm not that important, I've never amounted to much to this point, and probably never will despite what I've declared while we were outside. Milady I agree on this with both of my companions and would like to apologize for any misconduct, how can we make up for that? Not only them, but also Mr. Piet? Just why?

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I'm not important, I'm a nobody who's only true accomplishment is summoning an entire army. You didn't just summon them my inheritor, you also gave thousands life, cloth, weaponry and real bodies. A failure you are not, and never let anyone tell you such a thing. In. Brimir's. Name. Is. That! That voice isn't human that is pretty much certain. As I turn to look around me I see that everyone is frozen? What?

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''I transported you to my realm temporarily to talk for a moment, the connection I share with you and your familiars through the sheer amount of runes present is strong enough for me to be able to do this unlike in most other situations where a human or humanlike being is summoned.''

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I register the words, but what? Not important what did this beast do to everyone around me! No matter whether I'm a failure or not, I will not give up without a fight no matter what power this being has! I'm a Vallière and we do not surrender, no matter the odds! I turn around aiming my wand at the source of the voice and preparing to cast a spell the moment it turns violent.

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? POV

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Her determination to defend them, however misplaced, is truly something to respect. The void has chosen at least this candidate of my inheritance well. ''I am of no danger towards either you or your allies young one, though in this realm outside of the physical magic is not truly useful anyways. The only reason we're even appearing to speak towards each other instead of simply communicating through telepathy I believe one of your familiars called it?''

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She gives me a hesitant nod but doesn't lower her weapon and instead keeps herself at the ready for a fight in case my words were false. Not bad, not bad at all. ''The only difference between that and what we are doing now is that this realm is of the mind alone, so while both our bodies resemble the one you use in life and the one I used to have in my prime, that is just the physical representations we feel the most comfortable with and has little to do with anything else.''

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''You speak as if you aren't alive anymore, but you are clearly here in front of me? What do you mean with that?'' A light smile graces my face, the void certainly has chosen correctly with this one. ''While in a way you could still consider me alive, my physical body itself has long since died off.'' She looks even more confused at this. I should probably explain some and with the reaction I got the last time this happened I best not tell her my identity right this moment.

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After summoning a chair for her where this non-corporal body can actually sit on I begin. ''Let me tell you a story young one, though do please sit down, the tale will take a while. You have not to concern yourself with what is happening outside, we are currently in a time-dilation dimensional realm, meaning that even if we spend hours in here it will only be a second or so for the regular world.''

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She hesitantly takes my advice, obviously still concerned, but sits down and looks at me, now with curiosity and determination in her eyes alongside the already present confusion. ''I will, though if I feel that you are a threat to those I care about I will do whatever is possible to destroy you this I swear.''

It wasn't finished with a yell or even loudly at all really, but that steel her voice contained when she said it, if this was the physical world I would be very afraid for my health no matter how large the difference in both power and experience is supposed to be. Yes the void most certainly chose well.

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''I understand, though you have nothing to fear. Now to start with the story you should know that those soldiers you summoned weren't from a strange far-away country, they were instead from another planet in probably another dimension entirely.'' I was, as expected, interrupted here. ''Dimension? What in the Founder's name is a dimension? And how do you mean other planet?'' Hmm so that did get her attention, and good to know this was the right choice on what action to perform.

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''A dimension is a bubble of reality that contains 1 version of the universe in it. A planet is another name for a world, so say Halkeginia is located on a planet called Aethir for example, then the planet both the people you summoned and myself originally came from has many names, but one of the most accepted names in my time among the learned and wise was Terra, which when translated means roughly 'The ground which we stand upon.'

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The reason why I do not know if it is simply a different planet in the same dimension or another dimension entirely is because of the fact that neither science nor magic has developed far enough on our side of the connection to accurately judge our location in comparison to the location of my original home-world to see if we exist in the same dimension, or possibly even the same galaxy. Though the whole other dimension is more likely since until a century ago time didn't work the same between here and there.''

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She was staring at me with blank eyes. Okay, yeah that explanation went straight over her head… damnit the only reason I know this myself is that I can tap into the combined knowledge of those that have had to bear the runes of a void familiar at some point in history, and with the large amount of people currently bearing such runes that knowledge has grown a lot since the time when I originally designed the spell. How did I expect a teenager from a world where magic is seen as the only way forward to understand all this without giving her some time to learn about possible ways of improvement of society outside of magic.

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''A planet is the designation of a world. A world is what contains continents, with Halkeginia being one of such continents. Can you understand this so far?'' She nodded, seemingly both intrigued and a little annoyed. Reasonable enough reaction considering the situation, let's hope it remains that way. ''A star system is one like what we have here, with a few planets orbiting a sun while there are sometimes also moons orbiting the planets.

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That number has chances of being 0, or 1, or 2 or any other, however it is usually not too many because of the fact that the larger the amount of moons around a world the higher the chance that some of them will start interfering with each-other as they all try to orbit a planet. Understood?'' She once again nodded, though this time the curiosity and intrigue were definitely starting to overshadow her annoyance, which is a very good sign.

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''A galaxy is a group of at minimum hundreds of star systems that are within a relatively close distance of each-other, the exact number of star systems and how close the systems really are to each-other being very different for each galaxy. Still understood?'' She nodded once again. Good this is going much better then last time around with that arse who's in charge of Gallia. Why did one of my descendants have to be that insane? Nevermind, back to the topic.

''A dimension is as I said earlier the easiest to imagine as a bubble that contains a version of reality, which means it contains a large number of galaxies.'' Now I can see her eyes start to nearly pop out figuratively at the sheer size of that idea, good as long as she actually believes this it will be much easier to explain the other things about my home-world to her later.

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''Now that you realize just how big that is you probably realize why I do not know where the other world is.'' She nodded, but then seemed to realize something that made her frown very heavily. Should I ask her about it? No, I can do that later, I'll just finish the explanation first and then answer any questions she has.

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''However as I said the highest chance is it being a different dimension entirely seen by the fact that while more than 6000 years has gone past since my arrival here, only 1100 or 1200 years have gone past there. The only reason why it is still an option that time does work linearly is because of the chance that the portals that bring people over can be affected by time travel somehow due to the fact that some of the familiars summoned belonged to a later time period in the other world when compared to other familiars summoned during the same year.''

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''Assuming that what you are stating is the truth, which I can somehow feel is at least partially correct even though I've never heard of any of this information before, how does the spell connect the two worlds? I doubt that I personally posses enough willpower to perform such an action in any way shape or form, and even if I had enough it was never my intention to do something like this and the more complicated the effects of a spell are the more important the intention behind the casting becomes as far as I know?''

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''That feeling of somehow knowing that something you hear is at least in the right direction to being correct even though you have never heard of anything like it before is most likely you subconsciously accessing the cumulative knowledge of all the people currently baring your familiar runes.

.

And once again, I tell you: do not doubt your own abilities so much. For your information you gave the raw power, though admittedly the main reason it worked was because the familiar ritual doesn't actually use the foci in your hand, or in other words your wand, to channel the magic, it instead uses your own body alone.''

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She is now gaping at me, which is understandable since I only found out about this after years of intense research on the spell to try and devise a way to send both familiars that do not remain with us and possibly cases such as myself back home. And I was the one who invented the damn spell in the first place. With the Church of the Founder forbidding any deep research into the subject, the chance of her finding anything more then the bare bones basics about it is very small.

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''Your main problem is most certainly not raw power young lady, and the combination of determination and intent you had when you were performing the summoning spell caused this to happen.'' She looked at me aghast ''Wait a second… does that mean that I just need to stop using a wand and my spells will start working? Its that simple?''

.

Hmm though an interesting theory, most certainly not with her current spell types. If she tried casting those explosions with her bare hands there's a 50/50 chance she'd actually damage her hand instead of causing it to hit the target since they are the basic spell of her Void repertoire, meaning that she hasn't been able to get used to how to truly control void spells when using them without any form of foci.

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''The answer to that is both a yes and a no.'' She looked even more confused then she did before I started with this. Sigh I really have unlearned the mechanisms of social contact while stuck here for all those years. ''The main reason behind those spells failing has nothing to do with how good a mage you were in the first place, they just have to do with your elements. And yes I'm saying elements, you have 2 elements your magic is suited to but sadly enough unlike regular mages you can't use the other elements at all.''

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''What do you mean my elements? I have never been able to do any magic of any of the four known elements!'' I looked at her ''First off there's five elements even according to that pentagram style magic system, however even then one of your elements falls outside of it entirely.'' She looked ready to interrupt me with another question but I cut her off beforehand

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''I'll answer the question if you let me talk for a moment without interruption alright? You can accuse me of heresy or anything equally ridiculous afterwards, deal?'' She looked extremely irritated now but nodded. Ok while less good then it was going moments ago its still better then the conversation with Joseph was at any and all points. ''Good. So let me explain like this: the five elements of the pentagram, earth, fire, water, wind and the supposedly 'lost' element of void right?'' She nodded at that.

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''You simply don't qualify for any of the first four elements, only as the fifth one. And before you go screaming that its not possible for you to possess the so called 'holy' element and how I would not possibly know anything about it, I was one of the first void mages in recorded history that actually managed to gain some form of control over the power without going insane, if not the very first one.

So yes I know a bit about how to recognise another one. Also secondly why do you think I'm having this conversation with you? I've been having this same conversation with any void mage in recent history that managed to summon enough familiars for their runes to actually gain enough power to form the connection between me and the mage in question.

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Let me tell you this: you are the strongest, most competent and most intelligent person I've had contact with in multiple millennia, and before you start 'that is because there haven't been void mages since the time of the founder and so you've been stuck here without company for close to 6000 years!' like the last idiot did when I called him the most insane person I'd met in the same span of time, there have been a number of them.

Not many, but enough that I've met a good thirty or so people in here and even then those were only the Void mages that summoned 3 or more familiars, the ones with 1 or 2 didn't even meet me, not regarding that one exceptionally strange case where a female void mage had summoned a familiar that was limited to a single large metallic body, but who's mind was in actuality a hive-mind of hundreds of highly intelligent beings that functioned in said single body?

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Still don't know how that worked, even with the knowledge I passively gained from their memory. They could have been a force of change and also did some good for the place, but after she had been declared an outlaw by the church they fled the place through a portal back to the hive's original dimension.

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And yes before you ask it was most likely a different dimension because they, the hivemind, kept talking about how the planet was in a location outside of his galaxy with none of the other galaxies or stars aligning in any way they could calculate existed back in his home dimension.''

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And I've gone off track once again. Damnit, staying here and only conversing with another person once every few decades at the very best, once in every other century in most cases cases has not been good for my mental health and ability to hold a conversation centred around a specific subject, especially not the fact that at least half of those that I did meet were fricking insane. Sigh lets get back on track once again. ''Anyways lets go back to the main conversation, your main element is void.

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Yes as in the legendary void wielded by the 'founder' Brimir. Your secondary element however is one you might be either even less at ease with or actually more at ease depending on how much you believe of the shit that the 'Founders Church' throws everywhere, namely energy manipulation, or as you people call it: nature magic.'' She looks at me with wide eyes her mouth slack open while she was softly muttering ''what… how?.. can't be.''

.

Taking pity on her I tell her ''I can tell you that yes, it is possible, and no the elves aren't 'enemies of the founder' that's just some shit the popes in Romelia added later on to give their followers an enemy they could stand against united. How I would know this is simple: if you hadn't noticed yet I am Brimir, the man beyond the world, the traveller eternal, the holy founder and whatever other title they have attributed to me over my long life.'' She looks ready to cut me off again ''Believe it or not I do not care too much, the main thing I want to tell you with this is simple: the elves weren't some unified enemy against me.

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By Odin's beard I was married to one of them. It was the main Elvish nation that I had come in opposition of, leading a large group of newly awakened native human mages, a group of allies back from my old world, whatever elvish freedom fighters I could find and the familiars I had summoned against that oppressive regime, eventually managing to secure a costly victory and driving them back into what is nowadays considered 'the holy lands'.

After that I set up governments everywhere I could, assisted the people in becoming able to lead themselves, however the war and my summoning of many beings had caused something I didn't expect but really should have: the population started seeing me as God or at least a divine being of some kind.

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After looking for years, I finally found a way for us to return home should we want so, however by that point everyone except for me had settled down already, gotten families, become community leaders andsoforth. I myself had long since fallen in love with an elvish lady years before that, she was young for her kind even though she was already close to two centuries old.

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Together we had five sons and a single daughter, though none but my daughter actually showed much sign of having elfin heritage with my daughter having both the pointed ears and energy manipulation, while in all my sons that heritage was dormant and they instead were all void mages of differing amounts of power. I set up academies for young mages to study at on multiple places on the continent in safety without fear of being attacked because of their powers, and I was at peace with it for a while.

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That is until I received news about the Alvanian empire having killed most of their non-elvish slaves and any elves that spoke out against this decision, as a form of revenge for us rising against them in rebellion, causing me to go into a blood rage, recruit whatever forces I could and attack them, no matter the consequences.''

.

I was very much not proud of this part ''After years of a bloody war of attrition in which both sides lost thousands of lives, I found out it had all been a ploy by a third party, namely some magical humans calling themselves the 'true followers of the founder' that had decided that any elves still in the 'holy lands' were monsters that needed to be eradicated.

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All those years of fighting, with nothing accomplished but the deaths of tens of thousands and close to a hundred thousand badly injured on both sides, for nothing. After this we were too weary of fighting to still go on and simply left, never to return again, while I would die from an ambush during our retreat back to lands held by our own people.

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Within a few generations after my death most of the elves that were still on our side had integrated into our society, with a mix of their children and those of the early mages forming what could be considered the modern mages over time. My children all prospered and became the kings and queen of their own countries, with my sons ruling over all the current nations with the exception of Romalia, which was under the control of my daughter.

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However, in the shadows there was this movement that had caused the second great war, the followers of the founder, that decided they didn't like how things were going and were slowly exerting influence over the magical population of most of the countries, poisoning them against the non-magical population, giving them feelings of superiority.

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While at first my descendants were against it, eventually one by one the royal families of all countries except Romalia had been convinced of their righteousness and how magic should be the determining factor on who would lead the people. My daughter's descendants however kept going against it, but after a brutal coup d'état which killed all members of that family still in the country at the time, they could truly start changing the world to what they considered paradise.''

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I could feel both sadness and rage to overcome me once again at the same time. After all this time, I still cannot get over why they tarnished both my own and my children's legacy and killed so many innocent people with it. How did they ever get it into their heads that it was a good idea to do this?

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''Through gradual changing of the history books, the instilment of a single state religion in all countries with false accounts of both wars, my own still remaining popularity being used to promote said religion with them twisting my deeds and actions into something they had never been and lastly a heavy promotion of hate towards the remaining full elves, they got their paradise.

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And because it had been so gradual after the initial fighting with remaining loyalists to my daughter's bloodline, there wasn't any large scale resistance, with people thinking that this was how it always had been by the time we reach 4500 years ago. Everything I cared about either dead, destroyed or twisted beyond imagination into something I could never have even imagined to be possible. And I was stuck here the entire damn time, watching everything, unable to change a thing.

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Hearing them condemn my daughter as a traitorous beast that was only spared because I was tricked into a pact after defeating the elves. My wife being seen as an indoctrinated slave only following me because she was forced to do so by runic shackles which were a so called 'punishment' for some kind of past crime.

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This instead of the reality of her being my rock, the one that kept me sane through all that madness that were the early years of the rebellion, the one that stood by my side in battle of her own free will and bled for our cause willingly. For the rights of the common people in the first place long before she actually became my lover, and on it went.''

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I was now openly crying but I didn't care anymore, I had enough of having this conversation with people only to be seen as either a worthless liar or a weakling that got what he deserved. I just wanted to finally pass on, and hopefully spend time with my family in Valhalla or whatever other afterlife there was instead of being forced to watch as everything we built together was spit upon and ground down in my own damn name!

.

But no, not even that peace was given to me, because those poor indoctrinated fools kept praying for me I was stuck here until one of those that visited me finally both accepted my words and had the ability to actually do something about it in the long term. I hoped that this one was finally the one actually able to do so.

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Louise POV

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This history, it isn't just a tale, it truly is this mans life story. He also does look a lot like the few paintings of Brimir I've seen throughout, though in those he looks less… human probably? Yes, in those they always depict him as a conquering hero for holy mankind, but never much about him as an actual person, and strangely enough though everyone knows that his children took over power there is never even a single mention of his wife's name anywhere.

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More than enough statements about her being a powerful mage, loving mother and a standard for all women to live up to, but literally nothing else. He could very easily be right about this, it would also make much more sense then the official story produced by the Founders Church.

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When looking back to it now it doesn't make much sense, just how would a cunning, extremely powerful general that defeated a whole race of Elves while leading a rebellion with a small army behind him suddenly be tricked into striking a deal with a random elvish woman after he had actually established 5 kingdoms.

Even more so how could he be possibly be tricked by such an elf if he was both the so called paragon of loyalty to his wife and attacked any elf on sight according to the history books? While I'm not certain I can believe he's Brimir himself, I can easily believe he's either Brimir trying to set things straight or one of his sons trying to set things straight and stop this pollution of his father's legacy.

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The only real problem I have with this is how he survived if his physical body died? I mean I know elves live a lot longer then humans and he had a familiar bond to one, which would enable him survive as familiar bonds cause the one with the shortest lifespan to gain an extended natural lifespan closer to the other, no matter if the one with the shorter is the familiar or the summoner.

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It's one of the main reasons why people want dragons and gryphons so much, those both can live to see half a millennium pass if they do not die in battle and would also extend some of that same life-span to the summoner adding in close to a full century of life outside of the regular time if one does not experience death in either combat or another form of conflict.

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So if he had said his body was still alive I could believe it somewhat considering both the power accredited to him and the fact that elves can live for millennia at the least if not killed by either something like illness, poison, accidents or combat. Possibly much longer but we simply don't know because we haven't interacted with elves for so long.

.

However he himself admitted his physical body had long since died, so how? ''I do believe your story of who you are, but what I do not understand is the how behind it? How are you still alive if your physical body has been dead for such a long time? Are you a nature spirit right now or something like that?''

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He looked at me, probably surprised by both the question and the fact that I believed him in the first place. From what I can gather that doesn't seem to be the usual reply, and with this revelation some of his earlier statements make a lot more sense then they did a few minutes ago.

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''As strange as this may sound somehow the original religious belief of the population shortly after I freed them from slavery and during the fighting years of the rebellion started the process of something called a legend in physical form which makes the personal prowess of a person prayed to and believed in by the masses stronger, however it only functions correctly if that person's body is actually strong enough to endure the process.

My body was actually strong enough for it due to the mixes of tests I had done early on with all kinds of runes and potions strengthening me in all kinds of ways unthinkable to most. The problem with this was that it came at a cost: while my body was now much stronger, I would have died if it wasn't for my beloveds healing magic ensuring I survived all encounters during which she was nearby.

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While the growing belief from them strengthened me, shortly before the point in time where the second war started it became much more extreme in the span of months, causing me to develop some truly supernatural powers, which had the effect of once again enlarging the slowly growing religion which led to a circle of constantly getting somewhat stronger and coming closer to what some people would call a 'divine' status.

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However, after the war ended in our retreat and my subsequent death, I had gathered too large an amount of power and what I most certainly hadn't known beforehand was that I had also become an integral part of my own system of the void. This caused me to live on in here, watching the world change anywhere were I had followers, without being able to interfere at all, with my only companions being the seldom visitors and extremely irregularly the sentient force that is what had become of the 'Void' personified.''

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Wait a second, did I just hear that correctly ''The element of Void has become intelligent enough to choose a personification that chooses to meet with you sir?'' He nodded ''She does, and yes you also heard that correctly the void identifies herself as a she. She sees me as a father figure, her creator so to speak since I was the first void mage that didn't go on a mad rampage because of the power trip and side-effects that it gives you when used without a foci such as a wand, enchanted jewellery or a stave.

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Since even the most primitive of wands were very uncommon things back then, these side effects kicked in pretty much every time a void mage used their power for the first time in their lives.

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This was made worse by the fact that the Empire of Alvenia'' he probably noticed my very confused look at that considering he sighed and shook his head as if he was berating himself ''The original Elven empire, though it has been dead for a long time by now, collapsed less than a century after the second war was over.''

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Yeah I probably should have been able to guess he was referring to that place when saying a nation name on something bad that has happened in his lifetime to void mages considering his own group had and still has a religion revolving around them.

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''Anyways, back to the history, it was made worse by the fact that the Empire of Alvenia would use these people once their element had been discovered as cannon fodder in a charge against the armies of rebels that sprung up on a regular basis. Like I explained earlier, I was far from the first to rise in rebellion against them, I just happened to lead the first truly succesfull rebellion of that time period.''

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Hmm though it is strange that he's using relatively modern terms to describe certain things, he did say earlier he has the ability to gain information from all the runes of current and past void familiars, and considering just how many familiars I've gained the more modern vocabulary is probably caused by the influence of such large numbers of people with different languages and words to describe things for him.

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''I do have a question though, if you don't mind sir?'' He looks slightly surprised, but nods ''Ask away young Louise and I might have an answer for you.'' Ok here it goes ''Can you tell me how many other void mages are currently alive that have actually summoned their familiars yet?''

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I can almost see that he is counting in his mind ''Lets see, there are, including you, 4 void mages right now that have summoned familiars already, including you 3 of those also actually know they are void mages and at least a rough version of what that actually means while one is unsure though I cannot visit her since she only summoned two familiars instead of three or more, however the one void spell she knows has been very useful to her in the past and is still useful right now.

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There are also another 6 void mages around who haven't summoned a familiar yet, though with 4 of those it is because they are assumed to be commoners and as such not considered to be able to use magic, 1 is the very rare class of dual elemental and as such due to the element she currently uses was never realized to be a void mage, while the last is currently a first year at her magical school and will only perform the ritual next year.''

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I started looking at him with hope in my eyes, causing him to chuckle slightly and shake his head ''And no I'm not going to tell you about the one's that haven't discovered their own abilities yet,'' causing me to pout at him ''and don't look at me like that, I literally cannot talk about it because I swore an oath to Elizabeth'' and there is my old friend confusion again ''The personification of the Void.''

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Yeah the concept of the most powerful branch of magic that he seems to have a father-daughter relationship with, very understandable that he doesn't want to break her trust. ''So even though I want to I cannot talk to you about that, considering Isabelle sees freedom of choice as an important part of existence, she isn't interested in me telling on her about this.''

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However then he coughed slightly causing me to look up at him from my sullen stare at the ground, he was smiling slightly ''I never said I couldn't speak about those void mages that are already active young one, only not those that haven't been discovered yet. You see one of the main reasons why the Void users are often feared besides the fact that they controlled that very element, is the fact that they are near always on the extremes of a spectrum.'' Is he now just trying to confuse me with terms I do not fully understand?

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''What I mean with that is that they much more frequently then regular people can actually be placed in the black-white perspective of the world, completely good or completely evil, completely sane or fully insane, etcetera. Normally people fall into a shade of grey on all these subjects, or at the least can be put into either category depending on your point of view of the world, but at our very core us void mages are much less easy to categorise in such a way.

.

For example, the current Gallian leader and their strongest Void mage of this era even if either of the others find out about their own ability, king Joseph, is an insane and evil but extremely competent man that spent most of his time searching for some kind of emotion to actually fill up the emptiness in he kept feeling.

After meeting with me because of the multiple familiars he summoned however he decided that he was born as the saviour of the modern founders religion and had to gain leadership of Halkeginia to take the fight to the Elves, so that he could then replace me as the church's main holy figure to ensure an as he put it 'weakling' like me wouldn't be the one to bring them into the afterlife. He thinks residing here is supposed to be a glorious reward with ultimate power over life and death and that I'm just too weak to make use of it.''

.

What… just how did the man even think that such a thing was possible? A large part of the reason Brimir even remained here was because people had been worshipping him for thousands of years, and from how he talks about it he is close to going insane from seeing how everyone and everything he cared for died without him being able to change a thing.

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He literally tells he would have done anything to change things if he could and he lead a rebellion against beings much more powerful then humans with himself at the frontlines in at least some of the battles… how could anyone think that he has power over what happens outside of this in any meaningful way but that he's just too weak to use it?

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He probably noticed my stare at him after that sentence ''No I didn't give him any indication that that would even be possible, in fact as far as I know it is impossible considering I don't even do any of that. I'm literally only a watcher and cannot even interact with the physical world outside of having conversations with the personification of the Void and the people that visit here once in a while.

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I have no control over any kind of afterlife and cannot influence the decisions of the living outside of having a conversation with Void users that come over every once in a while, most certainly not the almost mind control like abilities he thinks are part of the role.'' He sighs, the pained look on his face easily visible, even for a person like me who hasn't known him for more than a few minutes.

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''I'm no more than a lonely old man that wants to move on from this sort of existence and go, hug my wife and children to me in the afterlife, talk to my grandchildren about things, feast with those I consider my brothers and sisters in arms. I do not know if Valhalla exists here or if I can enter it as a being no longer mortal myself if it is here, however I hope that it is since that is where I could meet all those that I loved, with every single one of them being a warrior worthy of entering it, and possibly meet others that have had to deal with this sort of thing throughout their lives.

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Watching for centuries as the people they once knew aged and died, their children grew up aged and died, and so on, until you were still watching at the point in time were the generation of your great-great-great grand-children had long since bitten the dust and been completely forgotten aside from some legends about them, then still have to watch on not being able to change a thing afterwards.''

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We both sat there for a while after that, though I couldn't even begin to guess how long it was, before he finally looked at me and began talking again ''Thank you for listening and your support my young friend, I needed to get that off my chest, and with nobody to talk to it might have come off more angry then it was supposed to be. We can continue later on about the other void mages, but I would rather switch the subject for a bit if you don't mind?''

.

If he considered that more angry than what it was supposed to be, just how calmly could he handle things in life? He just spoke about how not only was his life's work ruined, but how his name was being used for evil causes and turned against those very people he cared about, he's entitled to a large amount of anger right now. Also as long as he will tell me about the other already active Void mages eventually, I suppose it won't be too much of a problem.

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''Sir, you weren't coming off very angry at all and even so you were talking about the horrible things that have been done to your legacy and family, it would have been more then understandable if you did get very angry at these things. And we can drop the subject for now and go on with something you are more comfortable with currently.''

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He nodded, a seemingly thankful look on his face. ''Okay so now that we've gone through all that lets get back to our earlier conversation. I had explained about your elements already right, and you now believe you actually possess them?''

.

I nodded, because while I wasn't sure yet about just what to do with said information, the remaining information he had delivered made it clear enough that the chances of him not being the genuine article were low, and why would a Void mage lie to another person about them being one.

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Especially when the Void mage couldn't actually interact with the world around them. The nature magic is somewhat less comfortable, but it would explain some things including how I never really get tired from using magic, even after extremely willpower intensive things such as my summoning earlier today.

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I did still have a few questions on the subject though, and this was probably the best time to get answers about them. ''I do have a few questions about them though if you don't mind?'' He shook his head with a small smile ''Teaching people about magic are some of the best memories of my life, sharing my knowledge with an eager student will be far from a burden, instead it will allow me to prepare you better for what is to come.'' I gave him a thankful nod, causing his smile to broaden slightly.

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''First, can you explain some more about Void magic in general, and why there is so little that is known about it?'' I'll probably need to know a lot more about that sort of thing, especially since one of the other Void Mages is the Gallian king, if he finds out about me and decides I'm an obstacle, then even with the army of familiars I've summoned I still won't have a very high chance of survival at the moment.

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''My young friend, the first thing you need to know about Void magic is the mistaken assumption that the modern Halkeginians live under that it is an extremely powerful holy element that makes all of its users have godlike powers. This assumption is in the case of most void mages simply false.

While Void users are more powerful than the average mage to a significant degree, it is closer to the difference between line and triangle mages when comparing the average power levels of the adults belonging to both groups, rather than roughly the same power difference as there is between a dot and square mage as the Church of the Founder would have you believe.''

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Not too strange, considering that even though it wasn't very high with the number of Void mages he mentioned that there were throughout history, if all of them were extremely powerful it would have been way too noticeable for the church to actually cover it all up well enough that somebody with my mother's level of connections wouldn't know about it and recognise the signals when I was younger.

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''However because of the fact that unlike mages with affinities to other elements void mages cannot naturally use any other element that isn't also their secondary element nor can they use the so called 'spells without element'. Cases of people's secondary element being say, water would have them never be noticed at all by society, and simply assumed to be a regular water mage that doesn't have too much power most of the time.

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This not having much power idea comes with the fact that as Void always remains the primary element, people will have less power with the secondary element of water just like the power difference between people's regular primary and secondary element, though in this case they cannot use any other element nor the so called element-less magic.''

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That does make some sense, though what does he mean with the most of the time? ''That does sound reasonable, though what do you mean with most of the time? What exceptions are there to this, and how do you recognize them?'' wait a minute ''Are the exceptions cases where instead through some convoluted way the void strengthens the magic instead? But how is that possible with what you just told me about how its impossible to combine void with regular magic?''

He grinned at this ''You see, when I said impossible I was oversimplifying a bit'' I nodded, causing him to continue ''You know the theory about how willpower resides in your body and you use it, as if your body was a water-ton, your willpower the water inside of the ton and spells being used out water leaving, while the ton gaining more water because of it raining being like you regaining willpower?''

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I nodded again, though I hadn't heard of that specific analogy, I had heard similar ones. ''Now imagine what would happen in case that water ton somehow had the ability to drain some water out of the air itself, on days that it didn't rain enough for it to be filled up completely.'' Huh?

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''To explain it simply, the air everywhere has a bit of water in it that can with the right equipment be taken out of it. Imagine the water mage with the primary element of void and the secondary element of water using the void as a tool to drain a small amount of willpower out of the air and give it to the mage like such a device would drain a small bit of water out of the air and give it to the water-ton in our example.'' That doesn't sound too unreasonable actually, wait a minute…

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''Are you telling me the Hexagon class mages of the Royal families were in reality just mages that turned the void power they possessed into a non-physical device to draw power from literal thin air for their magic?!'' He nodded, seemingly happy that I understood it, and now I am a bit embarrassed by how I was shouting at somebody that until this point has only been helpful to me, whom is also trying to assist me in gaining the ability to control my magic better.

Hmm okay that does explain somewhat better how Henrietta suddenly gained in power. Wait she hasn't done her summoning yet, which means that she will likely summon something similar to me? No never mind, Brimir literally just told me that he has met with less then 40 people while here, and the last one was King Joseph De Gallia.

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That man is close to fifty years old right now meaning that it has probably been three decades or more since he last saw a mage with void powers come here, even though he talks about multiple other void mages actively using their power being currently alive and spread through multiple countries around the world, meaning that the chance of summoning multiple people isn't very high.

''Now can you explain to me why my magic seems to cause explosions when I try to use a normal spell? Why doesn't it simply either do nothing or cause something that is more closely related to either the element of void or nature magic?'' At this he seemed to think for a moment before answering.

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''A good question, you see the effects of Void magic depend somewhat more on the personality and mentality of the person using them when the raw power is being used, causing them to automatically select a single spell as the effect no matter your chant as long as it isn't another void spell.'' Is this his way of saying that I have a sick mind considering the closest spell to my personality is an explosion?

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He must have noticed my expression because he continued ''Let me set something straight right now, void magic has a relatively small amount of spells in comparison to regular magic when used directly such as through a wand. When used indirectly or combined with a secondary element it can do all kinds of strange, dangerous and/or wonderful things, but on its own it boils down to a very simple repertoire. For instance, how many different water spells can you think off right now?''

''I could probably sum up some 40 of them right now, why?'' He nods at this then reacts by saying ''Not too bad, now would you like to know how many void spells I, the person who has been around for more than 6000 years while paying a lot of attention to void magic itself and even conversing with the physical representation of the Void knows?'' Yes please is my thought as I nod to him.

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''I know a total of 12 void spells that are really Void only.'' …what? I know he said few, but I didn't think the number would be that low! He must have seen my confusion, since he elaborated ''You are probably wondering about those miracles that I performed with the power of the Void according to the Church?''

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I nod, yes I thought those would be void only at least. ''That was me combining my primary element, the Void, with my secondary element, water to heal people, heighten the fertility of farmlands and turn the water inside and on my opponents bodies against them or in some cases certain results being attributed to me that were actually caused by the actions of others.

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The control the water that is in blood one is a reason for concern, since powerful water mages might be able to achieve the same effect if they realize it wasn't the Void element responsible for doing this, but mainly water element magic instead. Let's just hope nobody has figured that one out yet or else I might be heavily disadvantaged in battle.

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''The spell that created the inner wall of Romelia wasn't my doing, it was my daughter and several of children strengthening their Nature magic abilities with their void element to raise a defensive wall around a certain perimeter, making it much more durable then any wall made from rock should have any actual right to be. This is also why there is a certain level of magic resistance in the wall, for some reason structures made by or enchanted with elven magic diminish the power of any elemental magic cast at them.

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The heal wave spell that the Church considers the 'ability of the holy void to regenerate the flesh of its followers' is actually me strengthening a somewhat primitive version of the nowadays used 'Regeneration' spell that speeds up the natural ability to heal from wounds by 12 times for the next 60 minutes, back then it was only 8 times faster for the next 45 minutes, to become an area of effect spell with a 25 meter range while doubling both the duration and strength of the original healing spell used.''

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Hmm the idea behind the last two are quite interesting, so with the void I would be able to strengthen my own Nature magic abilities to either turn any spell into an area of effect spell, or to strengthen the effects of the spell itself. Very nice, I can even play it off as simply casting regular magic by pretending to use my wand while doing it.

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Yes, then mother would finally be proud of me! Her child that never cast magic successfully suddenly casting square class magic very well, simply because she is too powerful to use the appropriate amount in any other spell. On the other hand this would probably be suspicious to a number of people so I need to think well about whether to use it or not.

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''Now I'm sure you want to know what exactly the full unaltered Void spells I know are right?'' I nod in response to this, causing him to continue ''Well the ones I know are: Explosion, Dispel, Fog of War, Animate, Alteration, Wave of destruction, Summon Familiar, Music of the Soul, Raw Blast, Wall of the Soul and Puppet Master.''

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Okay, but now focus, you still need to learn about the others involved in this. ''I thank you for the explanation on this Lord Brimir, however if it is no problem may I now ask some questions about the other current active void mages?'' He seemed to sigh but nod, while giving me a slight smile.

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''Alright, you've indulged an old man enough for now and we do need to end this conversation at some point otherwise my dear daughter will kick you out to have her papa-time.'' He said the last words with a smirk and I could swear I heard a growl somewhere, but looking around didn't show anyone. Ok I do not want to interfere in that family relationship, it is probably the main thing that has kept him from going insane so far while he's probably the only human she can communicate with more than once in their lives.

''Ok so is there currently an active void mage in Albion'' he nods ''has said void mage chosen a side in the civil war between the Reconquista and the Loyalists? And if the answer on the previous question is yes, what side has said void mage chosen? Also is the Void mage male or female and roughly what age is he or she?''

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''To start off, the Void mage hasn't truly chosen a side, though she and her familiars have mainly clashed against the Reconquista so far since the Reconquista tends to be involved in attacks on innocent civilians quite often, however on the other hand she has very good reason to hate the current king so the chance of her siding with the Royalists is extremely low. And yes, the Void mage is female, she's about your age, a few years older I believe, though I'm uncertain about her current exact age since I only took an interest in her life relatively recently.''

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At that moment what looks to be a dark brown or black haired young woman with red eyes, slightly shorter then me but with roughly the same figure otherwise, walks into the room, before going to stand by Brimir's side. Where she promptly starts glaring at him, probably for the 'papa time' comment. I do not want to interfere in this, to do so would probably be a very dangerous mistake, potentially a lethal one. Though she does actually look cute with that glare… what am I thinking? Bad Louise, bad Louise!

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Meanwhile Brimir greets her with a ''Hi there sweetheart.'' then continues talking as if nothing has changed ''She's also a half-elf, and doesn't seem to know what to do with her magic besides her basic spell, however unlike yours her basic spell was Alteration, which can change the short term memory of a small group of people in a way the user wishes.

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This meant that it was very useful against small groups that tried anything against her, but on a proper battlefield or just against larger groups, it would eventually fail due to the maximum power that can be supplied to the spell and the fact that it can't change anything other than the memories of the past few hours.''

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Half-Elf? Just whom are her parents? No it can't be…. if that is true then the Reconquista, while still a foolish group with morals and ideas that are just completely suicidal, actually had a legitimate reason for rising up against the crown, if he's not only willing to kill his brother, but actually did kill him for his choice of a romantic partner like they claimed it to be.

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Though it does strike me as strange that they would use something in which they acknowledge the Elf was a victim as the rallying cause for a rebellion against a mad king. If he's really insane enough to do things like that he has probably done a number of other things they could have used to rise their forces around, for whom they would not have had to hide all the details of the case from the general population.

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Wait a second, maybe they are thinking of convincing the girl to join them, have her hide her Elfin heritage and then use her as a puppet to legitimise their government in the eyes of the Church? ''Now that you say it, with the moves they have been making till this point that has a good chance of being at least the plan that was told to most of the rebellions higher ranked members, though the chances of it being the ultimate plan is very low.'' Did I start thinking out loud again? Damnit, I really need to stop doing that.

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''While the theory is sound and could actually work, the problem with the idea is the fact that while she despises the current king for the responsibility he has for her parents deaths, some of the Reconquista's special forces have been sent to attack her, and most of these special forces are the Gallian Madman's secondary familiars and the woman in charge of them is the King's main familiar.

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Chances are thus high that they are instead trying to annex the country by having the girl be leader in name only for a while, then having somebody reveal she is of Elfin blood and perform a coup in which the next government becomes a Gallian protectorate of some kind. While I would have looked further into this possibility, the Gallian palace currently has some kind of anti-scrying ward even my power can't get through due to it being connected to the faith of another 'God' of some kind.''

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That once again makes a disturbing amount of sense and is a cunning, if somewhat simple, plan. This does give a signal though, even with him being an insane madmen that's apparently incapable of feeling a large part of the emotional spectrum, he is still either a cunning and intelligent man or at the very least willing to listen to very cunning and intelligent people that are advising him.

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Neither is a very good thing for my chances of survival in case he does decide that I'm a threat that needs to be removed. ''What exactly was the Elfin girls name? Also whom are her familiars and what are their capabilities? Are they from your home dimension? Possibly even your home-world?''

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He waves his hand and an moving image appears of the girl, showing a tall, blond haired woman with a very buxom figure looking slightly older then me. It would probably have felt like looking at a blond haired version of Zerbst if not for the fact that the moving picture shows her tenderly hugging and otherwise trying to give support to a very young and very distraught girl in her arms that probably just recently lost her parents, maybe she had even seen it happen herself in this civil war. Well the young Elf is distantly related to the Princess so she might have gotten her nurturing side that from her side of the family?

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Probably not, but she's already a much better option for an ally than that mad Gallian King, even if she is an elf. Though to be honest that last thing is bothering me a lot less now that I know that some of the people that freed us, fought for us and died for us were actually elves deciding to side with us over a mighty Elfin empire, so I believe I should treat them with the same level of courtesy I would treat a fellow human. Especially this girl, since she seems to care for that human child as if it were from her own womb.

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''Those familiars of hers are very interesting people yes, anyways the name of the girl is Tiffania and she runs an orphanage, her two familiars are both males of approximately the same height as the tallest of you familiars, and both are also extremely powerful. They are facing a large problem however, unlike with your familiars where most of their newly gained advantages were those of either bodily instincts or a slight strengthening of that which was already there in their minds, these two young men both got decades of memories downloaded into their minds.''

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I'm not sure how I know the rough meaning of the word download, but I'm becoming rather frightened what might have happened to these two if the meaning of the name I have in mind is true. ''What was the reason that they had this 'download', and why don't my familiars seem to have had much of it?''

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''The girls familiars, Daniel Phantom and Zuko Lee, have the problem of the abilities that their simulated selves possessed being powered at least partially by certain ideals, memories, emotions and faiths. And since the familiar summoning spell wants to give the mage the strongest possible version of the person that they are delivering…''

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With dawning horror I realised exactly what he meant with that. ''It tried to force those ideals or even the whole personalities of the person they were simulating, whom probably had a painful and troubled history, onto their minds while they were already being summoned into an entirely new world with very few or even no friends and no family or other forms of emotional support to fall back upon.

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And even after all that they now also have to use those powers to defend a person that they see as a defenceless young woman and a group of orphans while stuck in the middle of a warzone were both opposing sides hate at least one of the people they are trying to protect, most likely worsening the effect even more. While almost certainly mourning for either lost family members or lovers and on top of that potentially becoming attracted to a supernaturally beautiful woman.''

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Damn it all! I cannot just let them be forced to deal with all that on their own. ''I don't care for the consequences currently, once I've got a place where I can permanently station my familiars and give them housing, I'm putting an expedition together to go assist them and get these people to safety! I'll have to ask either the princess or my mother for one or more airships, but once I relate to them that it's a rescue operation of one of the last surviving members of the Royal Family of Albion they will almost certainly give those.

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And if they refuse then by hell and high water I'll just have to hire or commandeer a small merchant fleet to transport my army over. I will also not have Albion become a puppet state to a madman and tyrant in Gallia just because said man has aspirations of becoming a God! And if the bastard ever dares to even try to do the same thing to Tristain I'll storm down the doors of his damned palace and kill him with my own bare hands!''

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Brimir POV (just before Louise starts her declaration)

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''The girls familiars, Daniel Phantom and Zuko Lee, have the problem of the abilities that their simulated selves possessed being powered at least partially by certain ideals, memories, emotions and faith. And since the familiar summoning spell wants to give the mage the strongest possible version of the person that they are delivering…''

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With the look of horror that dawned on her face, I think she fully understood what I was alluding to. ''It tried to either force those ideals or even the whole personalities of the person they were simulating, whom probably had a painful and troubled history, onto their minds while they were already being summoned into an entirely new world with very few or even no friends and no family or other forms of emotional support to fall back upon.''

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Then she stood up and turned away from me slightly, hiding her face for a moment. ''And even after all that they now also have to use those powers to defend a person that they see as a defenceless young woman and a group of orphans while stuck in the middle of a warzone were both sides hate at least one of the people they are trying to protect, most likely worsening the effect even more. While almost certainly mourning for either lost family members or lovers and on top of that potentially becoming attracted to a supernaturally beautiful woman.''

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She then turned towards us with her eyes full of determination and steel in her voice and has she always been this muscled and this much taller than Elizabeth? What is happening? ''I don't care for the consequences currently, once I've got a place where I can permanently station my familiars and give them housing, I'm putting an expedition together to go assist them and get these people to safety!'' When did that wand in her hand change into a sword-wand, also since when did she have power literally radiating out from herself so much its actually part of the visual spectrum?

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''I'll have to plead with the princess or my mother for one or more airships, but once I relate to them that it's a rescue operation of one of the last surviving members of the Royal Family of Albion they will almost certainly give those, especially if it can be done without having to face an entire Reconquista army.

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And if they refuse then by hell and high water I'll just have to hire or commandeer a small merchant fleet to transport my army over. I will also not have Albion become a puppet state to a madman and tyrant in Gallia just because said man has aspirations of becoming a God!''

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She was had by now fully turned back towards us, however the area had begun shifting with the ground under her right foot going up slightly and her school clothing shifted into armour that looked as if it had just been worn in battle instead, while the entire area around us turned into a large field that showed signs of recent combat. ''And if the bastard ever dares to even try to do the same thing to Tristain I'll storm down the doors of his damned palace and kill him with my own bare hands!''

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''This I pledge, as Louise de la blanc de la Vallière, the 4th in line for the throne of Tristain, to be the shield of the oppressed and the sword of the Princess, to strike down her enemies and save our people from oppression, no matter if that oppression is from outside or within!'' At this she jabbed her sword-wand into the air, a bolt of dark lightning leaping out and into the sky of this realm while a non-existing wind blew her hair behind her.

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Okay this is extremely unexpected. As I looked at Elizabeth she seemed to be just as stunned by the situation as I was and was also looking at Louise with what seemed to be hunger, causing me to turn back to Louise, who only now seemed to realise what had just happened. I wordlessly conjured a mirror in front of her, causing her to look at it in amazement.

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Okay, I'm still shocked, I'm pretty much seeing a pink haired slightly shorter version of my biological daughter now standing in front of me. What is going on here? Just what is going on? I've been here for thousands of years and I'm met dozens of people and none of them ever had something like this happen?! Then I heard my adopted daughter talking.

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''You have just proven yourself worthy, like my father did when he first decided to start leading his revolt against the Alvanian empire. Because of this, I will give you and your soldiers all the remaining information in a compressed file. Sadly enough I cannot keep you here any longer, we cannot give you much more time then the others, good luck to you Louise le blanc de la Vallière.''

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After this Louise starts disappearing, with time starting up again causing me to look and hear her main familiar comment upon her beauty. Shortly afterwards both she and all her familiars gain a very bad headache from the information being downloaded into their minds. ''Was that really necessary? We could have talked more to her and explained things better?''

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This gave way to Elizabeth's reaction of ''We might have been able to, yes, however she needs to figure things out for herself in at least some part to truly reach her full potential. This means that she also cannot have you or me just give her all the information she needs, because then she will start to rely on it leaving her extremely vulnerable in situations were we aren't allowed or even able to interfere.''

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There is a grain of truth in there, more then a grain actually, however its not the full story. ''You also hated how she pretty much looked like a more muscled and slightly taller pink haired version of you, especially at the end there right?'' She blushes and starts stammering out negative responses to that claim.

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''Or was it the fact that she has a young man that likes that look a lot even though all the spirits and other similar beings derisively call you all kinds of insults because of your similar physical looks? Though if that is the truth then why did you give her the remaining information, if in compressed form, and why did you try to give these people to her at the best moment possible giving her an army of thousands instead of dozens at best?''

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She mumbled something in response that I couldn't hear while beat-red, hmm this is going to be very interesting. I know very well that she isn't really interested in the male attention the girl got, but more likely interested in the girl herself. Now I just have to continue trying to get her to admit it, that would be better for the both of us. Alas, it doesn't seem that such a thing will actually happen today.

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Louise POV

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Ok just why did she suddenly kick me out? She said something about time but then why first let me have all kinds of general conversation with Brimir instead of just giving me the information upfront? And when would that information download start? While coming to I suddenly hear Saito, though it seems I caught him while he was in the middle of talking about something.

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 _''…Though his behaviour is somewhat understandable, Louise unconsciously exudes this aura of hidden care for others. I do not understand how the others outside of us do not see it. She's also very beautiful, both inside and out. Maybe not a beauty in the most conventional way, but most certainly beautiful. And also has a near angelic voice to listen to, both in physical and mental communication.''_

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I can feel myself turning beet red, I haven't heard anyone compliment me like that in my entire life. It can't be really true, I mean I look like a child according to nearly all other students on this school and he's just seen Kirche, he can see that I'm not very beautiful in comparison to most others here. Still… no matter what else happens, the compliment is very nice and also very much appreciated. But wait, how did I understand the language he was talking in? It wasn't Tristanian that I can be certain of.

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I then hear Piet say _''You were talking out loud idiot, though luckily for you it was in English so hopefully for all of us lady Vallière didn't get the ability to understand it from you during the bonding ceremony or she will be embarrassed even further and it could possibly even create a diplomatic incident._

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 _Especially if the local rules regarding social interaction with potential romantic intentions towards royalty are as strict as they were back home and she takes affront with such things being said in the open like that.''_ As I see Saito's face pale, I know I will have to inter- AAAAGGGGHHH- the pain, damnit the pain! Why do these information downloads have to be so painful!

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3rd Person POV

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While Louise and all her familiars are suddenly subjected to extreme pains to the head, the group in the hall can't do anything other then keep watching them while they themselves are frozen for moments. When the group finally stops yelling in pain, the headmaster snaps out of it ''You four look them over to see if they are alright and what the cause of this is, I need to go outside to see if the group at that camp of theirs will need mage healers in case they got badly injured.''

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After heading out and checking up on the camp he found out that there were few major injuries, with most of those already being treated by the time he got a few of the Academy's healers out to treat them. While not badly needed, it was appreciated nonetheless by the army and the healers were thanked for the assistance. The whole incident would cause a rise in the opinion of the army about the academy staff.

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Meanwhile Louise and the three generals had met with a lieutenant that relayed a message to them from the fourth general about what supplies they would need to set-up a temporary camp. During this time, Louise and the men also had a discussion about the possibility of gaining some of the land the orcs were on now to create more permanent residences for their troops on in return for driving the Orcs away from the land.

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After that discussion was done they quickly went over the compressed information given by Elizabeth and Brimir about themselves and their troops, before deciding that they would need to reveal some of it to the headmaster and other members of the academy leadership to ensure trust was gained between both groups.

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However they would also need to try and find a way to keep Kirche and Tabitha out of the discussion, since Kirche wouldn't have a reason to keep a secret and considering Tabitha was part of the d'Orleans family which was in turn a cadet branch of the Gallian Royal Family, chances were high she was here as either a Gallian spy or as a diplomat in training and would thus report back to the mad king.

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After the whole ordeal was over, the group reconvened in the hall, though this time Kirche von Zerbst was notably absent, which most of the others were thankful for. Tabitha also wasn't there, apparently her familiar had become a bit fussy and needed attention, something which extra-dimensional group and Louise were all very grateful for.

After everyone was seated once again, the introduction was restarted with Pierre starting up the last remaining ones ''My name is Pierre de Alain and I am a general in the French Royal Army. I hope we can have business that is fruitful for both of our sides.'' After this he nodded to the soldier on his right who nodded in return and continued as the next.

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''My name is Richard de Bourgogne, I am a soldier in the French Royal Army and a member of general De Alain's personal bodyguard.'' After which the soldier on his right spoke up ''Roland de Korlandais, also a soldier in the French Royal Army and a member of general De Alain's personal bodyguard.''

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After this Pierre spoke up, having been designated the spokesperson for the group beforehand. ''Okay so first things first, we apparently do not have enough supplies to set up a full camp for the night on the type of terrain around the academy. While we do not need anywhere near as many waste-holes and latrines that a regular army of our size would need due to the troops having been given a near perfected digestive system that allows us to absorb close to all the materials we eat and more efficiently disperse the nutrients in them than a regular human would.

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We do need more tents, sleeping bags and food for some of the men, while permission for the horses to graze is also a necessity if we want to keep them around here for today. For any move after this the Professor suggested we move to take out the Orcs that have captured land nearby and ask permission from the current monarch to use part of the land to build a more permanent form of housing for our soldiers.''

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At this the headmaster turned to his assistant, who then turned towards Pierre with a thoughtful look ''Exactly how many sleeping bags and tents would you need? And food for how many of your soldiers?'' After visibly doing some calculations Pierre gave a reply ''We have food to feed the French, Dutch and Italian armies however after that we wouldn't have enough to feed a number of men from the British armies, 320 of the 932 British troops wouldn't have enough food for a decent meal.

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Tents or at the very least sleeping bags of some kind we need enough to fit another 600 soldiers, with the Papal and Dutch armies not having enough tents for all their soldiers. In exchange for these supplies being given to us we would be willing to patrol the area and roads around the academy for you and perform excursions against bandits and other similar groups. We would also be willing to assist in researching the design of several devices our world had that this world might lack, especially in the area of book production and farming techniques.''

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The group on the other side looked intrigued by the offer, especially professor Colbert who was thinking about what those techniques could be. ''And what exactly would the improved book production technique be? Cheaper writing materials? An easier way to teach people how to write so it will be less expensive to hire scribes? A more efficient tool to write with then a feather?''

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The general D'Alian shook his head but signalled general Hiraga to explain the situation, whom promptly did so, with some visible excitement ''The easiest ways to increase the quantity and availability of books drastically are two things: a basic printer, and lead pencils. Both of these would lower the costs of actually making books significantly to start with, causing more people to learn how to read easily and repeating the cycle of books becoming somewhat cheaper until all of the costs for them are the cost of writing the original version and the materials to print all the copies.

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Another way to vastly increase it is building some self-inking pens, however to actually make those in large enough number to have a significant effect would require a certain industrial base that your country currently simply doesn't have. We could revisit that option later as it is a very useful concept, however right now it just wouldn't be a practical thing to try to use.''

The professor seemed very interested in this and a friendly scientific discussion might have broken out if not for the secretary choosing that moment to interfere ''I think we should first ensure the logistics of the food and materials are done before further discussion is had, whom of you is the best at organising such things?''

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The Generals exchanged some glances and nods before D'Alain spoke up ''General Churchill or General van Vlimmeren should be our best options at logistics, Churchill was a naval officer in command of a number of ships before we joined the simulator program and van Vlimmeren has been not only the commanding officer in multiple campaigns but also a politician of some respite.

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They are also the only ones among the high-command of our army that actually had a formal officers training and graduated from the academy instead of getting promoted into their positions while on the field of battle, thereby unlike us they aren't missing a number of lessons on how to best manage supply lines and such which we only got from Churchill and van Vlimmeren while in the field.''

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General van Vlimmeren spoke up ''I'll work with her, General Churchill doesn't speak the local language so they'll need an intermediary anyways. If neither of you nor our hosts have a problem with this?'' The other generals waved his concern away while Louise thanked him. After getting a nod from Mathilda before she moved to the hall he followed after her with the door closing behind him.

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Piet POV

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So the number Pierre gave back there is a near exact number right he got from you right? Not some actual half-way correct guess that you humoured not wanting to start a discussion? I could literally feel his sigh across the mental connection. Yes Piet it's a bit different from the real number but only because we didn't know how to explain the fact that Pierre would know off the top of his head exactly how many tents and how much food the men had with them.

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Instead of the numbers given we need food for 309 men only, with enough of either sleeping bags, tents or rooms to house 595 of our soldiers. I still do not understand how the simulation gave us this much gear, but it's a lot better then having to depend fully on the locals for such things. The rations were actually from the Dutch and Papal armies only for some reason, having been meant to last them multiple days instead of the single day they will last now for the entire army.

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While I was having this mental conversation with Steve, the lady -Mathilda I think her name was? I recognised her from somewhere I think, but how could that be?- and I arrived at what could only be the kitchens, were she opened the door before yelling _''Marteau!''_ before backing off and closing the door again.

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My confusion at this action was probably shown on my face since she gave the explanation of _''Marteau is the head-chef of the Academy, and as such probably knows more about the current food-stores we have then I do. Future cooperation will also be easier if you know whom to speak to if I'm not available to assist on the subject of supplies and other such things.''_

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Reasonable enough of an answer from her, also good of her to already be prepared for the possibility. Though it might also indicate that she intends to leave in the future for extended periods of time to perform business in the headmasters name, which might be less of a good thing since she seems to possess a significantly higher level of professionalism then that man does.

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While the headmaster hasn't done anything wrong, he did have this mischievous look in his eyes which might spell trouble in the future if left unchecked. Hearing the door open, I turn towards it to see a tall and broad man, slightly taller then me and build like a bear, walk out of the kitchen. _''Good day to you Miss. Longueville, and whom is this guest you brought with you?''_ With the last only being added after he noticed that she wasn't actually alone.

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He then looks me over and comments. _''Finally found a good man for yourself and itching to introduce him to everyone?''_ I look close to twenty years older then the woman…. wait never-mind I'm in a medieval world right now, age differences probably don't matter much for relationships here. Consent might also be an oft not applied concept, though Louise's reaction towards Saito seems to suggest otherwise so I won't judge on the last one yet.

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 _''He is not courting me Marteau, this is General Piet van Vlimmeren, one of the commanding officers of the army that Miss de la Vallière summoned.''_ The man turns back towards me, now with a vaguely hostile look having entered his eyes. Is he some kind of medieval version of an anti-war protester? On the other hand he might also be angry at the idea of a large army of soldiers now being stationed at the academy, since in medieval times large armies did oft cause much pain and grief among the local populace of wherever they were stationed.

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 _''So a member of nobility has been summoned and he is now demanding for him to be served the best food there can possibly be no matter how unusual the time is for it? Is that it? Also why would one of those mages actually deign to hang a rifle over his back like a 'common' soldier instead of only a wand-sword as befitting of his rank of a proper mage general?''_

Oh, almost forgot this a class based society were the ability to shape the supernatural is related to if you're part of the nobility or not. And this guy probably doesn't have a very positive opinion about nobility after having to clean up after teenage brats with a much too large ego for years.

Ok how to best diffuse this situation, having the person that will be in charge of ensuring we actually have enough food unhappy with us isn't a good thing. _''Sir I am no member of the Nobility, local or otherwise. Of our four generals, only one is a nobleman and even then he only got it because of the British Empire's system where any man or woman who has done great service to the country gains a title of nobility, with the importance of said title depending on just how great of a task they performed.''_

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It seems to have worked at least somewhat, since he is calming down, but he's got a pensive look about him so something else might happen soon still. _''Then if not through the channels of nobility, how did you gain your rank as general?'' Now I'm slightly confused, even if nobility determines a lot to these people, shouldn't they also have very experienced soldiers not part of nobility that rise in rank naturally? Even if said rank is far below general they should know of the overall process right?  
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Oh well, it's no problem to explain. _''After finishing basic training, I went to officers school, being named an infantry Lieutenant upon finishing the education. Afterwards through a combination of years of experience, talent and battlefield promotions to replace out of action officers I eventually reached my current rank. The other generals underwent roughly the same process.''_

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Now I've got to play dumb for a bit, it will probably give us some new information on just how much some of the seemingly better informed members of the local populace actually know of the system. _''Don't you have the same process around here? Miss de la Vallière hasn't had time to mention much of anything about such things yet you see.''_

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 _''You two can discuss the finer details of this no doubt interesting topic later gentlemen, right now we need to get back to the topic of how to supply that army currently stationed on the academy grounds.''_ Damnit, will have to do this some other time then. The head chef has changed to a more professional attitude in barely a second, I should probably do the same thing.

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 _''Ok so how many soldiers are we actually talking about here? Also, is it only food that needs to be supplied or do you also need other things such as tents to sleep in, tools to repair your weapons, leather or cloth to repair clothing and armour, andsoforth?''_ Hmm the first two I know already, last ones not so much.

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General Churchill? I get a mental response that I will just have to interpret as an affirmative. Are we in urgent need of anything other than the tents and the food? Or are we good so far on most things with low food reserves and few tents or sleeping bags to sleep in being our only immediate problems?

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No problems so far other than those two, so you won't have to worry about that. By the way, setting up what we already had is going much faster then expected. As such I can spare a few units to bring supplies over to our encampment, do your Blue Guards infantry regiment and some of the British line infantry regulars sound alright to you for such task?

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While the Blue Guards are not the best unit for such a task, they probably do need the humbling it brings to ensure they won't cause as many problems with the regular troops as their historical namesakes did. I'll send a message to you when I need them, good luck with getting everything organised back there.

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I left the 'deep in thought' stance I'd taken while communicating with Steve, though luckily said conversation cost much less time then a face to face one of the same length would have taken. _''As far as I know we have no other needs as of right now, the only thing we really need is food for 320 soldiers and a large enough number of tents or supplies to build such to house 600 of our soldiers.''_

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Marteau could be seen doing some mental calculations upon hearing this, after which Marteau replied _''The food is easily doable, we could make close to double of that even on relatively short notice such as this situation. However for housing we only have enough actual tents for some 400 people.''_ Damnit, not good.

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 _''However, we do have about 250 guestrooms here at the academy for visiting parents and the more important members of the entourages of foreign dignitaries whenever they visit the academy. Only 50 of those are currently occupied, and if we put some of the spare beds in a few of the remaining ones we could easily fit the remaining 200 soldiers in 50 of those rooms.''_

That is a very good solution but there's probably a catch to this. At that point Mathilda decided to speak up about it _''While a nice idea, there is a problem here. Those rooms will be put to use during the visit of the princess in two weeks, so we need to have an alternative form of housing for those soldiers by that point in time. Could that plan you told us about with the Orc tribe be ready by then?''_ I nodded at that, two local weeks meaning 10 days, that should be more then enough time for us to gain that alternative form of housing our troops. Probably some distance away from the academy too.

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 _''The plan to get another form of housing will have been put into action at latest by this time next week, at earliest in the next three days so we will easily be able to move them out of those rooms by that point. It is mainly a stopgap measure for today and tomorrow, to ensure we our men won't have to sleep out in the cold without any form of protection or warmth. After that we should have somewhere between 360 and 750 less soldiers stationed in this area since they will be patrolling the region we will have freed from the trolls by then, giving us more than enough local housing with those added tents.''_

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At this both of them nodded, good, maybe there won't be any problems with this. _''I'll send my lieutenant back to the camp and have him gather some of my troops to transport the supplies, if neither of you mind?''_ Both Marteau and Mathilda signalled it wouldn't be a problem for either of them, though Marteau apparently did still have a question. _''I'll have some of my co-workers meet your soldiers at the door, what colour uniforms will they be wearing?''  
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 _''The soldiers will be the Blue Guard infantry Regiment and some men of the British line infantry regulars, with the earlier unit wearing the same colours as their name suggests, the British units will be wearing red coats.''_ Marteau nodded and went back into the kitchen to start on his part of organising everything.

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I meanwhile started walking back to the Hall following the secretary, in comfortable silence, or at least on my part it was comfortable don't really know how it felt to her. Hmm ok so I'll just put this through to both the Lieutenant and Steve. Lieutenant Jacques, meet me at the door to the main hall were the others are conversing I need to speak to you in public to pass through orders.

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General Churchill prepare the pre-discussed soldiers to transport the supplies. Full Blue Guard infantry unit, some forty British regulars. The number isn't entirely necessary to transport the supplies, but I don't trust the locals fully. After a few seconds and a, Sir yes sir, from the Lieutenant I got Steve's answer. You think the local nobility will try something against our people if the numbers are small enough that they won't be finding dozens of rifles aiming at them when our troops get sufficiently angered?

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You did hear the conversation I had with the locals right? That Zerbst girl was surprised as hell I even dared to speak up to her in such an instance. And she didn't seem to be a complete idiot. So its very likely that the actual idiots will try something even if there are dozens of our troops nearby. I let my mental voice turn cold as ice. However in that scenario they will be filled with large amounts of lead long before they can even finish the first word of their supernatural chants.

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Let's hope our new patron cannot overhear these directed mental conversations or we might have traumatized the poor kid with the fear that our troops will start butchering the students if they even look at us the wrong way. While that might be mentioned as a joke, it's a real possibility. Need to check up on that one fast and apologize to her for filling her head with such a fear if it is the truth.

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Something to ponder upon later, it seems we've reached the doorway to the main hall again, and there is Jacques. Upon me walking into his field of vision he salutes me ''Greetings General van Vlimmeren. Is there something I can do for you.'' I nod and order ''Yes lieutenant, go back to the camp and gather the Blue Guard infantry regiment and some redcoat regulars, we'll need both groups to transport some supplies from here back to the camp.'' The Lieutenant nodded, saluted again and was about to run off only for some shouting in the hall to interrupt us.

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The secretary rushes to the door and forces it open with me and the Lieutenant running in after her, only for me to bump into the secretary with enough force to nearly bowl her over. Why did she stop? What the hell?

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…. Why the fuck is Louise sobbing in Saito's arms while they are softly muttering to each-other with him periodically glaring at an unknown female mage that looks a bit like Louise over her shoulder, with all our soldiers keeping Osmond and Colbert down on the ground with swords near important areas of their bodies, while Pierre has the target of Saito's ire forced to her knees with his sword being held at her neck execution style … ''I want an explanation for this and I want it now.''

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Just what happened here?! And why did none of you notify me about this?! I mentally shout at nobody in particular. First things first Jacques, secure the secretary to ensure she doesn't try to attack us. Do not use lethal force however. After he nods and complies, disarming the unresisting woman and holding a dagger at her back. With that seen to I open communications to Steve.

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Divert all of the redcoat regulars you've gathered and some of the Blue Guards to the main hall instead and have them run here, we are in a potentially hostile situation and I need re-enforcements now! Keep the main force of Blue Guards to bring the supplies, but have them on full combat alert!

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Pierre turns towards me while forcibly turning the young woman with him to ensure he can look at me without letting his guard slip, before he starts talking, his voice harsh as steel. ''You see general while you were away from our location we started discussing the plan of us going on to take care of the Orcs in the town they had occupied and stationing some of our troops there.

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But we were suddenly interrupted by a young female that later turned out to be Louise's sister storming into the hall while shouting at Louise about how she was a 'useless mage', a 'disgrace to the family', and how she was going to 'marry the viscount as a proper little lady to set things right.' Disgusting retch.''

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The continuation of his speech was once again impeded by him glaring fiercely at the woman he was holding forced to her knees, whom I only now noticed only and one arm forced behind her back by Pierre, the other hung in a way that signalled at least one of the bones in it was broken. ''Then when Louise offered counter arguments she ignored them all and grabbed Louise trying to force her to go along with her out of the hall.

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General Hiraga was the first of us to recover from the whole ordeal and charged at the woman, throwing her into the wall with enough force we assumed she would be temporarily knocked out and putting Louise behind himself with his sword drawn and aimed in the bitches direction. This action caused the headmaster to aim his staff and shoot some kind of wind spell at General Hiraga, pushing him away from Louise and throwing him into a table.

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This caused me to throw my service dagger into the man's hand, forcibly removing the staff from it, after which our soldiers mobbed both him and the professor and forced them to their knees. Hiraga was already up again, however he had to throw himself into the way of a spell heading for Louise, fired by her sister, giving him a shallow wound across his back.

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In reaction to this Louise fired a relatively weak explosion at the bitch, slamming her into the wall again, leading to me forcing her to her knees with my sword aimed at her to keep her from attacking any of us again. That sound just a few moments ago was the bitch coming to and starting to make a noise, forcing me to silence her by hitting her with the hilt of my sword then threatening to cut her down if she didn't comply with the command to be silent.''

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This whole thing is giving me a bad headache. ''First thing first, nobody is grievously wounded right? Everyone will be fine for a while even without medical attention? I mean I can see that… what is the name of the 'bitch' actually, we can't keep calling her that no matter how true it turns out to be?''

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Louise spoke up without turning her head from where it was buried in Saito's chest. ''Her name is Eleonore de la blanc de la Vallière, my older sister. She's a researcher at the University de Bruxelles, and seems to vent the anger about all the problems ever occurring in her life on me. She also seems to always have believed my ability to send explosive beams of magic at people's faces is somehow caused by me being too weak to be a regular mage, and ignores any evidence on the contrary.''

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Ok now that we know the name… wait a second… did Louise just speak in English? I hadn't even noticed I had slipped back into English before she spoke. No matter, we now have to ensure what this is all about. ''So to sum it up Eleonore decided that since according to her you were weak that you wouldn't summon anything anyways, making her believe the best course of action would be to forcibly pick you up after said 'failed' summoning and then push you into a marriage you didn't want.

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Our people decided they didn't like it and beat up not only her but also the two school teachers that thought it was a good idea to interfere on Eleonore's behalf.'' I look around to see that the only wounds on our side besides Saito are some light scorch and burn wounds along Roland's left arm. ''Two of ours and all three of them got injured during this, none very heavily. Good enough summary?''

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Then Louise turned for the first time and nodded at this, I could see her tearstained face, though she attempted to cover it up with a watery smile, which quite obviously failed. Damnit I hate this society enough already that if the girl asks I will start a revolution immediately. Sadly enough she is loyal to the bone to both her family despite how they treat her but even more loyal to the current heir to the throne. Any kind of coup or rebellion is out of the question for now.

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Then Saito pulled her into a hug once more and kissed her on the top of her forehead, causing the fake smile to turn into a real, if somewhat small, one aimed at him. Ah young love. Or at least affection. Though very fast, it's probably still better for them both then that her intended would be for her. Especially considering how much she seems to either hate or fear the idea of getting married to that man.

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 _''Restrain these three and keep them under watch, Pierre, I'll take over Eleonore, you go get a doctor or whatever the local equivalent is.''_ Then turning towards Mathilda _''Please sit down next to them we won't harm you but I am not taking any chances with any of you anymore.''_

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While she finally seems to be regaining her composure she is still somewhat out of it and follows the command obediently with Jacques keeping an eye and weapon on her, while I head over to Pierre, taking the young woman from him and roughly dragging her to one of the chairs. Pierre himself heads out the doors and walks into the direction of the infirmary we had seen earlier while having that group discussion about our new situation.

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Less than twenty seconds after he left four of the Blue guards storm in through the door and look around to see that the situation is already more or less resolved, they salute us, with two taking up positions on the inside of the doors and two taking position out, with most of the following Redcoats taking up positions along the walls and four of them going over to Saito and Louise and taking up defensive positions around them.

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Ok so now we've effectively taken the academy leadership hostage….. shit this is going to turn out badly for us isn't it? Pointing to a random four of the soldiers along the wall I order them to relieve me and the guards from having to guard to guard our new prisoners, meanwhile ordering another four to assist me in taking care of all the wounded, both our side and theirs.

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Eleonore POV

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Why is the light burning in my eyes, wait why can't I move my hands! Its all coming back to me now, trying to ensure Louise goes with me to ensure she marries the viscount and doesn't run away from it after failing her summoning ritual, being thrown against a wall by a foreign soldier, losing my ability to see for a moment but then seeing the young man standing up from some other persons hit.

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Intending on firing a line level air blade spell at him only for my aim to go awry due to pain and my wand turning towards Louise, causing the faltering intent to lower the spells power to barely dot level but still sending it, but then the young man tackles Louise down and takes the hit for her, after which she sends one of her so called 'explosions' at me in rage… then nothing until coming to again.

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Opening my eyes to look around I see that a water mage is tending to my injuries, but with soldiers holding some kind of muskets aimed at us. Wait how did an army not aligned to royalty produce enough muskets to outfit seemingly all their troops with them instead of using the easier to make harquebus for less important soldiers?

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They must have a lot of people working on supplying them with new ones. Doesn't matter much anyways, they are still commoners as far as I can see that attacked Tristanian Nobility, with possible exception of that young man since he moved fast enough that chances are high he is a wind mage of some kind.

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I hear a cough and I see that opposite of me now stands a tall dark haired man, a number of scars on his face, his hands planted firmly on the table that would have towered above me, even if I was standing before him. And that man is also glaring at me, very harshly, with cold blue eyes freezing me in place as if he was turning the very air around me into ice. The following silence as I cannot look away from his armed, angered and scarred large frame is very uncomfortable. Please say something.

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''Now that you are finally done with your beauty sleep child.'' I take that back, please go back to being silent, this is making me feel pretty much exactly how I felt whenever mother was angry at me when I was young. Only with more danger of him actually trying to kill me. ''Can you explain to me how you got it into your tiny foolish head that it was a good idea to attempt kidnapping an armed young woman who's single magical capability seems to revolve around firing explosive projectiles?

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Especially since the strongest of those explosions can destroy entire stone buildings? And even if that wasn't enough reason to make you rethink your plan, what was your reason for going through with it when you noticed she was surrounded by familiars she had just summoned who were all not only armed but also ready to fight and possibly even die to ensure she stayed safe?!''

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He's lying, she can't be that strong, she's just a weak mistake! Also, she failed her familiar summoning, she must have, why else would she be having a conversation with the headmaster and another teacher here in the great hall! Also that wasn't kidnapping, it was just ensuring she would fulfil her duties to the family!

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Now I just need to tell this boorish man off and ensure everything is as it… ''He is speaking the truth girl, you really made a large mistake in trying to do this. The only reason they didn't kill you on the spot is that Louise managed to stop them by informing you were really her sister. My own attempts at stopping them only ended up with us wounded and knocked out by revenge attacks from her soldiers.''

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I turned to look at who said this and saw it was the Headmaster of this academy. How dare this man go along with their little play! ''I never took you for a man fooled by some theatrics headmaster, I always thought you more intelligent then that. It's obvious though that old age has dulled you to the fact that since my sister is incapable of real magic, she just hired a group of mercenaries to act as her familiars…''

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Then suddenly the young man that threw me around is in my face and even though he is shorter then the older man, he's even more terrifying, because where the other man had a look that made me freeze in place, this man has a burning fire that makes me feel as if I'm going to be burned alive at any moment while he's glaring at me. ''One more comment girl, one more comment and I'll ignore Louise's request of sparing you because you are a family member of hers and I'll instead burn you alive at the stake!''

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Involuntarily making myself as small as possible while whimpering at the man I slowly nod, I am at a severe disadvantage with several strong men, possibly even mages, that were either hired by my sister and came to care a lot about her or with just how loyal they are acting possibly actually summoned by her and because of that all want to kill me in horrifying ways, with the only thing keeping them from actually doing so being a request made by my baby sister.

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Oh how I've always loathed my baby sister for her weakness in caring for people outside of our family, it's now possibly the reason she has a small army ready to follow her to their deaths. Because if the most likely possibility is true, and these are just mercenaries she somehow convinced into following her, then she has already charmed them enough for them to willingly go into open rebellion against the Tristanian crown by killing the second in line for the throne.

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If the less likely possibility is true, then Louise has just summoned the most dangerous familiars she could have summoned shy of a dragon or a griffon: a number of well-armed and loyal human soldiers who will stand by her side to fight, including at least one mage with how they managed to win against not only me but also both the headmaster and another teacher.

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I need a way out of this, wait I know it! A duel between me and three companions against her and three of her familiars, with the amount of capable scions of nobility on this academy, there will be more then enough willing to fight by my side to earn the favour of the second in line for the throne that also happens to be the heir to the Vallière family. Now just how will I lure them into accepting this challenge?

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''But back to our question, even if you thought we were mercenaries, that still doesn't explain how you expected to be able forcibly take your sisters while there were a number of armed soldiers nearby willing to fight for her while she still has explosion magic? Without any kind of forces fighting for your side with even the academy teachers here only interfering out of a combination of reflex and the thought that we were going to kill you? Are you really enough of an idiot to not realize an explosion to your face can kill you just as easily as any other human?''

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How dare this man insult my intelligence as such! I'm a well-known researcher in the field of communication by proving the impossibility of magical communication between mages and familiars! ''Maybe because I'm the second in line for the throne so nobody but the most foolish mercenary would interfere into my business and Louise is my sister and a younger member of house de la Vallière, and as such supposed to follow my orders no matter what they are?''

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From the corner of my eye I can see some of the men aiming their fire-arms at me. As if they will actually fire those unless I try to attack Louise again or kill the men before me! Even if they fire at me those things the chances are high they aren't well trained in actually handling them, the weapons look literally brand new, they probably got them only a few hours ago from a weapon smith. This means their aim will be horrible, and they'll be just as likely to hit the professors next to me as they are to hit me even at this distance.

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''And just how little do you know of your sister that you think she would just comply with you on all fronts and let you force her to the altar with a man she doesn't want as her husband at all?'' I turn to look at who said that, and it's another dark haired huge man, though this one is in a very different uniform from the first, it looks a lot like those of most lower class nobles in the military do. That filthy lowborn scum, how dare he question my knowledge of her! Also with how she looks, she should be happy any man of high noble birth is interested in marrying her at all!

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Calm down, calm down. While most of these men are simply commoners they still have me tied to a chair and one of them is already up again after receiving multiple hits of wind spells oft used to incapacitate rowdy prisoners and rebellious crowds. For him to still move this fast means that at least he, but probably also that older man, are mages mostly focusing on strengthening their physical bodies. While less useful in a proper fight or a duel, in a relatively small space as this it gives them a large advantage over me.

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Wait a second… the men here are all wearing very different uniforms. The last man to speak is probably the leader of those in light grey or white coloured uniforms, while the man with the freezing blue eyes is either the overall commander or the leader of some kind of blue clothed group like the two standing by the door. The younger man in the uniform with the red overcoat is despite his young age probably the leader of the red coated troops stationed at the walls.

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While normally this might make it easier, now it only makes it worse if anything. Louise somehow managed to convince not one leader, but the leaders of at least two probably three different subdivisions of a group that she is the one they should be following. ''So that was your whole play Eleonore? It wasn't because one of your suitors once again ran away from you after they spent more then a few minutes talking to you? How many times is that by now anyways, the ninth? Maybe tenth? Or possibly even the eleventh?''

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That little bitch, how dare she! That's it I'm challenging her to that duel and the combined capabilities of me and the best of the academy's students will break her and her little mercenary friends! ''I'm challenging you to a duel little sister, a four versus four, at the open field near the academy!'' She looks at me as if I'm boring her and not even worthy of her attention, oh I'm so punishing that little bitch once we get home.

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''What time dear sister?'' If this continues for much longer I might just attempt to kill the little bitch. Not a good idea with both muskets and swords still aimed in my direction, I need to leave and fast. ''In two hours little sister. You better be ready, I'll be dragging you back home after this!''

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''I'll leave you to your delusions dear sister.'' She then made a strange motion with her hand, though it seems dismissive. The soldiers that had been holding me into the chair step away, allowing me to stand up finally. ''Now shoo Eleonore, the adults here have to talk so you'll need to leave the room. We can't have our discussion interrupted again by a child throwing a temper tantrum like you just did.''

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The nerve of that little bitch, oh I'll have her beg for something as sweet as pain once we're back home. Storming out of the door which is opened for me by the guards, I see that there are another two on the other side, but that a small crowd of nobles is now watching the doors. Good, this will give me the chance to recruit some noble companions for my duel with the little bitch and her mercenaries.

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I walk up to the crowd, which is being held away by the commoners whom had muskets with knives attached to them while they were guarding the door. ''My fellow members of nobility, my name is Eleonore de la Vallière, the current heir to the Vallière fortune.'' I let that sink in for moment before continuing. ''My younger sister Louise de la Vallière is a classmate of yours, and currently believes she can get away with just ignoring orders from the head of the family.''

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Technically that isn't true, since mother didn't order me to do this at all. However she would almost certainly agree with them, she never involved herself in my rightful berating of Louise after all, and is probably as ashamed of her incompetence as a mage as I am. ''To end this problem I have challenged her to a four on four duel, with by her side three of her so called 'familiars', however I need daring nobles to stand by my side to teach these fools a lesson, who is with me?''

A number of the interested stares is suddenly replaced by looks of fear and a number of the crowd takes a few steps back and I can hear the mutters, which mostly go something like: ''In no way am I going to fight commoners armed with muskets in a duel to the death, even though we'll win for sure a single lucky shot and I'm dead. Not risking it.''

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A young man with blonde hair and a well kept appearance however steps forward and gallantly bows his head. ''I, Guiche de Gramont, hereby come to fulfil my part of the alliance between our families to support you, the heir, in this dispute with your rebellious sister. May Brimir's grace shine upon us and grant us victory over these opponents.''

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''I thank you Guiche de Gramont, and I accept your support wholeheartedly. Is there anyone else willing to join us?'' Wonderful, with the Gramonts being a military Earth mage family, he can summon up a number of golem soldiers to act as mobile walls to not only stop the opponent from getting close to us, but to also take the hit if they attempt to shoot us with one of their muskets.

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Though in all likelihood Louise will choose the three that are seemingly the leaders of the group inside, meaning that with the exception of the blue clothed one they'll only be using swords or low quality magic spells. Hmm that might actually be somewhat of a problem, I need more information on those enemies. Let's hope that the young Gramont and whomever else joins me knows more about them.

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Sigh nobody else is stepping up, are the current generation of nobles just so greedy or is it mostly fear of fighting an opponent that might actually fight back instead of just targeting a dummy of some kind. ''My brother and I will join you if you wish lady de la Vallière, though we should find a less public room to talk about our strategies for this.''

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As I turn to look at her I see a face I know from my political lessons. Katherina du Mott, the second child of the du Mott family, however because of her brothers incompetence in any area regarding ruling over anything most likely to become the actual heir to the count du Mott. Especially with her brother having been arrested enough times that by now law enforcement groups around the country have already learned to recognise him from crowds, and will probably have him jailed when he tries anything outside of the du Mott county.

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While her brother isn't a good option in any way or shape, I do need three others for this fight and nobody else seems to be interested in joining me. Besides, the de Gramont kid and the female du Mott should prove more then enough to handle three noble disgraces that don't seem to understand just how much conventional magic outmatches physical enhancing magic if the latter is used alone. In the meantime I can focus on my sister then take down whomever the male du Mott is having trouble fighting.

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''I accept your offer with much thanks, lady Katherina du Mott, lord Robert du Mott. Your idea bear merit lady Katherina, let us gather in a more private room and convene about how we are going to handle the situation upon our hands and deliver justice upon them.'' As I walk away with the three young nobles in tow, I cannot help but grin. I will get my revenge on them for attacking me so unreasonably and dishonourably in that hall.

AN: Okay, under this AN there will be a full unit codex of all units that are shown/discussed in this chapter both from Louise's side and that of her enemies. Including the unit types that Eleonore can call upon in any way, shape or form during the battle through magic. I've placed it here already because I originally intended to add the fight to this chapter, until I realised that the whole thing already had 28000 words. After that I decided to cut this chapter off at Eleonore recruiting allies to fight for her.

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After this in every chapter I will only show the information about the units mentioned here and in the last chapter when Louise is scrolling through them to look up their information/looking into whether it's worth recruiting them and when battles have caused changes to those units (losing troops, gained a large amount of combat experience and as such improving, etcetera).

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The stats of enemy or allied units mentioned in a chapter will be at the chapters unit codex located at the end of every chapter. All other units that were summoned over but haven't been mentioned in the last chapter that also won't be mentioned below this will be part of a codex in a separate chapter after this. The codex in here will be a lot smaller than the one I had originally planned, what with me once again realizing that this was going to become way too long if I also added all the units of the Dutch/French/Papal army to it.

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Another thing, like I said in the last chapters AN, instead of the 6 month turns in the actual total war game, turns now take 1 month, so a unit that takes 1 turn takes 1 month to recruit, a 1 turn unit takes 1 month to recruit, etc. Due to this however I had to change the recruitment time of some units to keep it more reasonable and not have them be massively OP (like suddenly being able to train say a unit of line infantry in 1 month meaning that a relatively small area of only a few thousand inhabitants could recruit close to their entire population into a professional army within a few months before simply abandoning the province as a form of scorched Earth tactics).

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The reason behind 1 month: I first considered taking two months, then remembered how long building things can take in the game and the rough time-line of familiar of zero, which is by the time the entire thing ends slightly less than two years? Which wouldn't work with my idea for the first units recruited in Tristain to have their first taste of battle at the defence of Tarbes during the first Reconquista invasion.

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Another thing I will mention as a fore-warning: Yes I know Brimir is long since dead in the series and cannot connect to the living, not even the people that inherited his power etc. I have watched a number of the episodes, though it has been a somewhat long time since I last did, and know that the past of the series is very different from the one I am both explaining and alluding to in this chapter.

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I also know I just created a competition for Louise's affection between Saito and the personification of the void. Deal with both things, in this story females won't be chasing Saito's affection en mass and I needed some tension on that front. I also think Louise being the target of another girls romantic intentions is not explored much outside of stories where Louise takes Saito's role as the harem protagonist and suddenly has the princess, Tabitha, Kirche and Siesta all after a roll in the hay with her. (For some never explained reason she sometimes also has one of her sisters as a romantic interest?)

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As for the Brimir thing, what I'm trying to do here is what I also tried in my other story: make it so that a combination of enough people truly believing in you, an object of strong supernatural power near you and a body that can handle it will give you a level of 'godhood', not only so that I can potentially use this sometime much later in either this story or a sequel if I ever decide to make one, but also so that I can give Louise more of a reason to fight against the current system without it being completely out of character.

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That Godhood isn't meant as in literally becoming a god with a creation legend or something like that, but more just that you will have a very high level of power that nearly nobody actually has making some of them think of you as a 'God' or some similar religious figure. One of the main reasons why I find this concept intriguing to explore is because of how interesting a conversation between them and their 'God' can be to write, but also the reaction from people who didn't believe in said being.

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For the last thing, just think about how much more interesting the Avengers movie was made by the fact that 'proof' of the Norse 'Gods' existence was shown to everyone and that Stark and Rogers (played excellently by Robert Downey Junior and Chris Evans respectively) reacted respectively with a ''Your move Reindeer games'' and ''There's only one God ma'am, and he most certainly doesn't dress like that.''

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I don't know about you people, but that was one of the most interesting things about the movie as a whole, even though 'Gods' were walking among them, very few people suddenly started having an existential crisis or something similar, they just noted it down and moved on, even fighting said so called 'God's' in person and giving as good as they got.

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I am hoping to recreate similar situations in this story as it progresses, though I will probably fall short of the excellent work done in the Avengers movies. Ok I apologize for rambling there for a bit, lets move on to the last point before the Unit Codex of this chapter.

Lastly for anyone that is angry with me for having Eleonore involved in this as part of the early conflict, I needed a way for the whole group to bond over a fight, while also creating some kind of conflict between Louise and some of her family members (otherwise there wouldn't be a real reason for her to strike out on her own, instead she would just have her familiars live off supplies given by her family).

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And yes I know I've written Eleonore as an extremely foolish bitch in this chapter. She isn't going to be, she's just very out of touch with how the world works. I made her a slightly more extreme version of her canon persona, a highly intelligent researcher that isn't able to handle the idea anything she views as true might not be so and is also somewhat out of touch with reality. With her personality representing that of the average Halkeginian researcher.

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And yes I know I'm now describing an oxymoron, since usually intelligent and capable researchers actually invite criticism and counter-arguments so that they can refine and strengthen both their own capabilities and the quality of whatever theory/product they are working on. This I do to represent Halkeginian research: its oft wrong, primitive and based only on trying to prove the assumptions of whomever is the most influential researcher involved in the project.

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The reasoning behind why I think research over there is that way is actually relatively simple. They have a church more repressive and controlling then the Catholic Church during the renaissance, their technology hasn't actually advanced much at all even though they had a semi-stable world structure with structured conflict and no kind of 'Dark Ages' at any point in their history for nearly 6000 years, at least on a governmental front, on a humanitarian and scientific front they've been in a dark age for nearly five thousand years.

Meanwhile spells and such are also looked into mostly in the way of 'let's unearth this ancient treasure, it might be important' instead of actually making something new themselves. This means that there has been pretty much no progression outside of single people making personal spells by altering pre-existing ones to suit the needs of the situation more, making a position at a spell-researching institute be pretty much just a place to earn prestige and little else.

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This while it is a society where magic is considered the determining factor on what you may be able to reach in life to the point that just being able to do magic at all immediately makes you a member of the higher class (nobility) while not being able to do magic makes you part of the lower class (commoners). This leads to my point that the average researcher will be a bull headed prejudiced buffoon there mainly to gain some prestige for a later political career.

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Anyways enough of the talk, onto the unit codex of this chapter.  
Unit Codex:

United Provinces Codex

 **Blue Guard**

Category:

Infantry

Class:

Elite Infantry

Men:

160

Range:

70

Accuracy:

55 (59 with runes active)

Reloading skill:

60 (64 with runes active)

Ammunition:

15

Melee attack:

12 (14.4 with runes active)

Charge bonus:

15 (18 with runes active)

Defence:

20

Morale:

12

Unit limit:

1

Turns to train:

4

Recruitment cost:

1690

Upkeep cost:

420

The Blue Guards are the elite bodyguard unit that serves the rulers of the Netherlands.  
All royal guards think of themselves as the elite of their national armies. Sometimes, they are court regiments where a martial appearance is valued more than real soldiering. The Blue Guards, however, have a tradition of fighting, and can shame any line regiment with their discipline and skill. This does not make them popular as they are, of course, all gentlemen and superior to any mere common infantry.

Historically, the Blue Guards began as the personal bodyguard to Protestant William of Orange (later William III of England and Scotland). They followed him as he drove out the Catholic King James II after the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. They were at the forefront of the attack during the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland in 1690, wading across the river to fall upon James' line.

With William's claim to the throne secure after James' defeat, the Blue Guards remained his personal bodyguards until his death in 1702: William could not bring himself to really trust Englishmen. After his death the Blue Guards returned to the Netherlands, and resumed duties there, playing a key role in the War of Spanish Succession.

 **Abilities**

Can guard

Can hide in light scrub

Can hide in woodland

Grappling hooks

Inspires nearby units

Resistant to morale shocks  
Good stamina  
Heavily degraded Gandalfr runes (These heavily degraded versions of the original ones only give a fifth of the original's boost, but are still a force to be reckoned with. This means that while they get some more competence when wielding any weapon or driving any vehicle, their ability will only increase slightly.  
However the degradation with the ability to control vehicles is a lot less prominent than it is with any of the other abilities given by the runes, allowing them to still reach mediocre level of competence with any vehicle. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Technological abilities**

Socket bayonet

Chevaux de frise

Earthworks

Fire and advance

Fire by rank

Improved platoon firing

Square formation

 **Requirements to recruit**

Building (minimum level):  
Army staff college **  
**

Territory:  
Unit can only be recruited in the home province of the faction.

 **Numbers:  
**

1 full unit of 160 is available, though only 4 individual soldiers were involved in the main events of this chapter.

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Codex of the Armeé Royal du France:

 **Generals Bodyguard**

Category: Cavalry  
Class: General  
Men: 32  
Melee attack: 9 (10.8 with runes) (7 when on foot without runes, 8.2 when on foot with runes)  
Charge bonus: 14 (16.8 with runes) (5 when on foot without runes, 6 when on foot with runes)  
Defence: 10 (7 when on foot)  
Morale: 12  
Recruitment cost: £800  
Upkeep cost: £50

These tough warriors and soldiers have only one task: keeping their commander alive and well in the swirling chaos of battle. A general can only do his duty properly if these men keep rough and unpleasant fellows from interrupting his calm deliberations about how to kill as many of the enemy as possible for as little loss as possible.

Only the most loyal and fiercest fighters are assigned to a general's bodyguard. Good manners are a bonus, of course, but a strong sword arm and a deadly aim are more use! Their equipment is generally of the finest quality, and their pay is often supplemented from the general's own pocket: they have a sound financial interest in keeping him alive, as well as their honour in carrying out a duty successfully!

 **Abilities:**

Can rally routing troops  
Can fight dismounted (However it has a negative effect on combat effectiveness)  
Inspires nearby units  
Heavily degraded Gandalfr runes (These heavily degraded versions of the original ones only give a fifth of the original's boost, but are still a force to be reckoned with. This means that while they get some more competence when wielding any weapon or driving any vehicle, their ability will only increase slightly.  
However the degradation with the ability to control vehicles is a lot less prominent than it is with any of the other abilities given by the runes, allowing them to still reach mediocre level of competence with any vehicle. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Requirements to recruit:**

This type of unit can only be formed upon the recruitment of a new general, with all non-standard abilities and looks depending on the general in question and their recruitment ideology.

 **Current number:**

1 full unit of 32 mounted soldiers. 

Enemy armies:

Gramont's forces during the duel

Special Units:

 **Eleonore de la Vallière**

Category: Leader  
Class: General/politician  
Men: 1  
Range: 15 to 40 (Lowest the airwave spell, highest a version of the wind blade spell.)  
Ranged damage: 1 to 30  
Accuracy: 15  
Ammunition: 1 to 50 (lowest the airwave spell, highest a version of the wind blade spell.)  
Melee attack: 5  
Charge bonus: 3  
Defence: 3  
Morale: 4  
Command capability: 1 to 5 command capability (depending on the situation)  
Morale bonus: -1 to +2 morale (depending on the situation)Eleonore de la Vallière is at the age of twenty-three the oldest daughter of the de la Vallière family, and the second in line for the Tristanian crown. Her father was the bastard half-brother of the previous king, her mother Karin 'the Heavy Wind' de la Vallière.

She is 165 centimetres (5 feet and 5 inches) tall, and looks like a shorter version of her mother with differently coloured hair. Unlike her youngest sister Louise, Eleonore doesn't take much after her mother personality wise. Nor does she take after her father much, like her other sister Cattelaya does. **  
**

Unlike any of those other four family members she fully buys into the 'Noble invincibility' idea, meaning that she thinks that in any kind of direct conflict, no matter if this is in matters of warfare or in matters of the alone mind, a commoner will never be truly equal to a noble. This mindset in combination with her standing as the at the time third in line for the throne allowed her entrance in Bruxelles Magical research academy.

In here she, through making a case in which she only mentioned arguments for her study and didn't debunk any that could potentially disprove her case, proved in the eyes of herself and most of the academy staff that any form of mental or other magical communication between a summoner and their familiar was impossible.

After this she got her own, if small, department to run studies with on the Bruxelles magical research academy. The young woman knows very little about how other people work and most of her opinions on people are based only on assumptions, nearly none at all from any kind of research into them or actual personal interaction with them.

 **Abilities**

Line wind mage (Allowing this person to perform multi-element Wind based magic spells.)  
Skirmishing (Due to training in guerrilla warfare, this person can if necessary skirmish against an enemy force)

 **Traits  
**

Theoretical knowledge of magic (due to hours of studying for theoretical knowledge of magic and the potential applications of many spells to a much higher degree then a regular mage, this person can now more easily devise tactics both with and against groups of mages. +1 command when fighting against an army mostly consistent of mages, +1 command when leading an army mostly consistent of mages into battle)  
Nobel invincibility (This person buys into the idea that commoner soldiers are unable to defeat noble soldiers in direct frontal combat if the armies are somewhat close to each-other in number.  
-2 command when against armies comprised mainly of non-mage units, +2 morale when leading a mainly magical army against non-mage opponents, -1 morale if leading an army consistent mainly of non-magical units.)  
Researcher of the Tristanian magical academy (+5% prestige with the nobility)

 **Requirements to recruit:**

As the heir to her own faction, this person cannot be recruited as a subordinate unless you take control of either that faction or a faction they have sworn allegiance to. 

**Guiche de Gramont**

Category: Leader  
Class: General  
Men: 1  
Range: 15 to 55 (lowest an earthquake spell, largest range one on the Rock punting spell)  
Ranged damage: 1 to 35 (lowest the Rock punting spell, highest the earthquake spell)  
Accuracy: 30  
Ammunition: 3 to 45 (Lowest on the Earthquake spell/bronze golem summoning, highest on the rock punting spell)  
Melee attack: 7  
Charge bonus: 4  
Defence: 5  
Morale: 6  
Command capability: 7 to 10 command capability (depending on the situation)  
Morale bonus: +1 to +3 morale (depending on the situation)

Guiche de Gramont is the fourth son of the famed general Adrien de Gramont, most famously known for being one of the main reasons behind the Germanian defeat in the Germanian-Tristanian war of the 5970's. The general took it upon himself to train his sons as the next generation of officers for the Tristanian army in case of another such war happening.

Guiche, while not the best of his brothers, was still a diligent student and is as such much more capable, both as a combatant himself and as a field officer, then most others his age. However due to inexperience in commanding flesh and blood troops in the field, where he instead is used to commanding easily replaceable golems against armies of the same unit types, he isn't fully suited yet to actual battles against human armies.

He is still a capable combatant and has done very well in the Tristanian youth duelling circuit. However the combination of this and his charms has also allowed him to indulge in a vice, he is a playboy, with him abusing the interest of several females in him even though he is engaged to a young woman he intends to marry down the line.

 **Abilities**

Line Earth mage (Allowing this person to perform multi-element Earth based magic spells)  
Golem specialty (A combination of a large amount of training and inborn alignment allows this person to summon golems much more efficiently than most other mages of the same element would be able to do.)  
Can hide in woods  
Can hide in tall grass  
Good hunter (Is competent at tracking both animals and other people when hunting)  
Good rider (Ranged capabilities don't diminish if the soldier was to engage in mounted combat)  
Inspires nearby units

 **Traits**

Competent commander (+1 command)  
Theoretical knowledge of magic (due to hours of studying for theoretical knowledge of magic and the potential applications of many spells to a much higher degree then a regular mage, this person can now more easily devise tactics both with and against groups of mages. +1 command when fighting against an army mostly consistent of mages, +1 command when leading an army mostly consistent of mages into battle)  
Charismatic (+1 morale, +5% influence with both the common and the higher classes)  
Infantry commander (This person has experience commanding infantry into the field of battle. +1 command and +2 morale when leading a mainly infantry based force into battle.)  
Born to fight (+2 command when fighting on land)  
Pawns in battle (Due to extensive amounts of realistic battle training and also some skirmishes with bandits, but always while in command of constructs of some kind, the tactics used will cause dissent among flesh and blood soldiers. +1 command, -1 morale)

 **Requirements to recruit:**

The only groups that can recruit this person to their cause are the Tristanian Royal Family, high ranking members of the de la Vallière family and other members of the Gramont family.

.

 **Robert du Mott**

Category: Leader  
Class: General  
Men: 1  
Range: 10 to 40 (lowest the flame whip spell, highest a fireball spell)  
Ranged damage: 1 to 6 (lowest his version of the fire-ball spell, highest the flame whip spell)  
Accuracy: 10  
Ammunition: 10  
Melee attack: 3  
Charge bonus: 2  
Defence: 2  
Morale: 3  
Upkeep cost: £20 (Can also be paid in political favors)  
Command capability: -5 to 0 command capability (depending on the situation)  
Morale bonus: -2 to +0 morale (depending on the situation)

Robert Mott is the oldest son of the current Count du Mott, said count being a small-time nobleman that managed to land himself the position of Royal Messenger due to a combination of diplomatic skills and an extreme loyalty to his country. However the son hasn't inherited his fathers charisma or the undying loyalty to the country. He also doesn't have much if any capabilities on the martial front, neither in personal combat nor strategical.

He has sadly enough inherited something else from the man: His insatiable lust and the idea that the commoners are little more then cattle to serve the will of the nobility. This in combination with his inflated sense of self has oft caused him to get in trouble with other more level-headed members of nobility and the staff of the Tristanian Magical Academy.

The headmaster has been trying to get him expelled, however the boys father has made many contacts during his time as Royal messenger, one of those contacts serves as the judge assigned for all legal matters pertaining students attending the Tristanian Magical Academy. This has caused the young man to be cleared of all charges four times after he was arrested by the academy guards for attempted rape of a maid twice, assault on a teacher once and lastly once for killing the familiars of two other students.

 **Abilities**

Dot fire mage (Allows for the use of dot level fire spells.)

 **Traits**

Friends with the law (Can come off scotch free from nearly any problems with law enforcement in or around the academy of magic in Tristain because of being favoured by the local judge.)  
Buffoon (due to a combination low intelligence and a dislike of studying opponents can easily manipulate or fool this person into making mistakes, both on and off the battlefield. -2 command, -1 morale)  
Coward (-1 morale)  
Nobel invincibility (This person buys into the idea that commoner soldiers are unable to defeat noble soldiers in direct frontal combat. -2 command when against armies comprised mainly of non-mage units, +2 morale when leading a magical army against non-mage opponents, -1 morale if leading an army consistent mainly of non-magical units.)  
Hotheaded (Easy to anger and with little capacity to patience, -1 command during battle, -2 command during sieges)

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 **Katherina du Mott**

Category: Leader  
Class: General  
Men: 1  
Range: 40  
Ranged damage: 2 to 12  
Melee attack: 5  
Charge bonus: 3  
Defence: 3  
Morale: 5  
Recruitment cost: £150 (As a mercenary leader, she is one of the few generals that can be recruited by outside forces)  
Upkeep: £20 (Can also be paid in political favors)  
Command capability: 5 to 7 command capability (depending on the situation)  
Morale bonus: 1 to +3 morale (depending on the situation)

Katherina Mott is the oldest daughter of the current Count du Mott, said count being a small-time nobleman that managed to land himself the position of Royal Messenger due to a combination of diplomatic skills and an extreme loyalty to his country. While his daughter inherited at least some of his diplomatic skills, she lacks any of his loyalty to his country.

This causes her to be viewed as a dangerous opponent by most political factions since nobody knows where her loyalties truly lie and what her actual goals are. She has also inherited some of his near insatiable lust, though not to the degree her older brother has and hers targets males instead of females.

This makes it easier for her to find willing assistants to relieve said lust instead of having to try and force herself upon people and lastly while having the typical mage superiority complex over commoners, she does understand they can be very dangerous to her if it comes down to it, unlike her brother who has the same views as their father on them.

She has been in trouble with the schools law enforcement once when she tried but failed to feed a male servant a love potion addled drink, however the servant was suspicious and had it examined by a teacher who then found out about the love potion inside the drink. She was cleared of the charge by the same judge that cleared her brother of all his crimes.

Even though she isn't the official heir to the family title as she is the second child, considering the chances are not only high her brother will end up in jail shortly after graduating the academy but also the fact that she is more competent then her brother, their father trained her to be able to take over as his heir. She also has created a small band of female mercenaries called 'the fourth daughters'.

Whom as the name suggests are fourth daughters in families both noble and commoner that want to make a name for themselves. They are oft accused of being involved in petty crimes, however the influence of the father of their commanding officer keeps the organisation as a whole from being targeted. Their loyalty is to Katherina alone however, as they despise both Count du Mott and his eldest son. They are not as well trained as the average member of the Tristanian Royal Military, however they are much better trained then most other mercenaries, levies and even most of the professional soldiers of Tristanian nobility.

Unknown to most of Tristain she has lead these mercenaries in battle several times against uprisings in their lands, these uprisings oft having been caused by her father's or brother's behaviour towards the common people. While it makes little difference reputation wise due to most people not knowing of these conflicts even happening, it has honed the skills of both herself and her soldiers in battle.

 **Abilities**

Dot level water mage  
Healing (this person specializes in healing magic, causing her magical abilities to heal others faster than those of the average water mage.)

 **Traits**

Charismatic (+1 morale, +5% influence with both the common and higher classes)  
Infantry commander (This person has experience commanding infantry into the field of battle. +1 command and +2 morale when leading a mainly infantry based force into battle.)  
Competent commander (+1 command)  
Born to fight (+2 command)  
Healer (+10% chance of wounded troops surviving the battle)

 **Requirements to recruit:**

To recruit this person you also need to recruit the mercenary company fourth daughters .

Other units

 **Gramont style Bronze golems**

Category: Infantry  
Class: Golem infantry  
Men: 4  
Melee attack: 6  
Charge bonus: 7  
Defence: 6  
Morale: - (due to them not being living thinking beings they do not have morale as such, and can only be routed if the controller becomes either unable to continue fighting or is routed. Otherwise these units will continue fighting on until their own destruction or until their caster runs out of magic)  
Recruitment cost: £0, medium amount of magical power from the caster (half of the total power belonging to most dot class mages)  
Upkeep: Minimum amount of magical control and a medium amount of magical power from the caster (about the same amount of power per minute the average dot class mage regains for the same duration of time.)

These golems are essentially non-sentient distance controlled units, with this specific design type created by the prominent Earth mage family de la Gramont. They have some advantages over flesh and blood soldiers, but also have a roughly equal amount of disadvantages. While these aren't some of the best, they also aren't anywhere near the weakest golem types. Their main advantage over other golems is their speed, since they are roughly as fast as most heavy cavalry units. This makes them an excellent flanking force to turn the tide of a battle with.

Like all golems, they have the advantage of being able to be summoned up near anywhere as long as there is an earth mage capable of doing so and always following orders unlike flesh and blood soldiers, but to their disadvantage unlike flesh and blood soldiers they cannot function at all anymore when their leader gets taken out of the fight, nor do they have the ability to take initiative should their leader not be able to judge the situation that they find themselves in correctly.

After that these golems also have the disadvantage that they'll be unable to react at all should their leader panic or take his mind off of the battle for more then a few seconds. This in combination with the fact that golems cost more magical power in upkeep the farther they move away from the mage means that very few armies use Golems as their main disposable infantry units and oft instead usually recruit levies from around the country to do that same job.

 **Requirements to recruit:**

Having an Earth mage in your forces that either is a member of the de Gramont family or has studied under a member of the de Gramont family in how to construct these golems.

 **Numbers:  
** unknown

 **Gramont style Earth Golems  
**

Category: Infantry  
Class: Mob golem  
Men: 32  
Melee attack: 2  
Charge bonus: 3  
Defence: 1  
Morale: - (due to them not being living thinking beings they do not have morale as such, and can only be routed if the controller becomes either unable to continue fighting or is routed. Otherwise these units will continue fighting on until their own destruction.)  
Recruitment cost: £0, Low amount of magical power, minimum control  
Upkeep: £0, An insignificant amount of magical control and a small amount of magical power (Per minute usually about half of what the average dot mage regains in that same amount of time, however the amount needed will rise quickly if the golems move a significant distance away from the caster.)

This is one of the weakest golem types around, however they have one advantage over every single other golem type: they are extremely cheap to summon and maintain and thusly can be summoned in somewhat large by even some of the most incompetent earth mages alive. This causes them to be what the Gramont family uses as the training tools to train their sons and daughters in the art of warfare without risking the possibility of losing actual valuable personnel during these training exercises.

Like all golems, they have the advantage of being able to be summoned up near anywhere as long as there is an earth mage capable of doing so and always following orders unlike flesh and blood soldiers, but to their disadvantage unlike flesh and blood soldiers they cannot function at all anymore when their leader gets taken out of the fight, nor do they have the ability to take initiative should their leader not be able to judge the situation that they find themselves in correctly.

After that these golems also have the disadvantage that they'll be unable to react at all should their leader panic or take his mind off of the battle for more than a few seconds. This in combination with the fact that golems cost more magical power in upkeep the farther they move away from the mage means that very few armies use Golems as their main disposable infantry units and oft instead usually recruit levies from around the country to do that same job.

 **Requirements to recruit:**

Having an Earth mage in your forces that has studied under a member of the de Gramont family in how to construct these golems.

 **Numbers:  
** unknown

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	3. Diplomacy, honour and family issues

Empire of zero part 3: Diplomacy, honour and family issues.

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the games in the total war franchise, nor do I own the show Familiar de Zero/ Zero no tsukima. If I did this would come out as a rough script for the campaign map for empire total war in the same way the warpath campaign can be bought and a reboot for the anime adaptation of Familiar de Zero.**

''Language'' = Regular spoken language in a language that is natural to the person. (Meaning one of the languages that they speak so fluently they literally think to themselves in that language. And yes that doesn't have to be your birth language if you grow up with two or more languages being spoken near you consistently.)

 _''Language''=_ Text written like this means that it is a language not natural to the person, in the first chapter I made I wrote it down in the language of origin no matter if the person listening to it can understand it or not and you just had to realize if they knew what was being said from the surrounding text.

Since the second chapter however I've made it so that as long as the person understands the language but it's not their native language, it will be written in cursive English (for instance while Piet van Vlimmeren can both understand and speak French, it is not a natural language for him like Dutch and French would be so it will be written in cursive English. However if somebody were to speak to him in for instance Arabic, he just wouldn't understand it at all so it would be written down in cursive Arabic.)

Language= Text written like this a form of mental communication. For instance the whole VR to reality transition will cause the generals to develop slight psychic bonds with their troops and their communications will be shown like this. Not hive-mind level psychic connection, but closer to the level of Jean Grey connecting all X-men team members through their minds connection.

 **Language= Text usually involving someone trying to forcibly have another person either submit or perform an action through active mind control. Will also be used by both sides during such a battle if it causes supernatural powers to be exhibited in the outside world or by a single person exerting high levels of supernatural power in a ritual/spell.**

 **With supernatural powers I don't mean regular magic but more like as in close to Godlike levels of power being used to force a person's will or desires upon reality (like say teleporting a large group of people between worlds while also granting a large number of them actual physical bodies, a soul, life and free will).**

.

World: Halkeginia, Location: main hall of the Tristanian magical academy, the moment Eleonore leaves the hall

.

3rd person POV

.

Silence reigns for a moment after Eleonore de la Vallière storms out, before professor Colbert sighs. ''Well there goes our ability to actively enforce our 'No duelling' rule this year. Can't we have one year where people do not keep trying to get into duels on this school?'' As he asks this he turns towards the only Vallière left in the room.

''Neither you nor your officers have a problem with us freeing ourselves right? We could have escaped somewhat earlier however considering that might have caused this to escalate to lethal force we didn't. It would be better for the continuation of the negotiations. if we're both free.'' At this she nods, not able to form full sentences yet with all the anger and worry visibly coursing through her.

This in combination with the reluctant nods from the generals he moves his hand slightly and the rope falls away, showing that he had a dagger hidden in his left hand. After this he frees the headmaster, who starts moving a bit to get the blood in his limbs to flow a bit faster again, especially his right arm. Meanwhile the secretary wasn't bound in the first place due to not having been personally involved in the earlier scuffle.

Everyone is silent again for a moment before General Jean-Pierre starts speaking. ''Now that that whole situation is over, I believe we still needed to discuss the situation about those Orcs terrorizing a nearby region and how we might be able to use the land to station a large portion of our army there after killing off the Orcs? Can you give us some more information about the situation?''

At this all three academy personnel nod, before they exchange some looks with the headmaster sighing and nodding his ascent to both of them. After this he turns towards the other group in the hall and begins his explanation. ''The Orcs are a group of somewhere between five-hundred and six-hundred, we're unsure of their exact numbers.

Few of them have armour of any kind and only their leaders personal bodyguard has decent weaponry, though that group is very dangerous as they are most likely experienced combatants, the best armoured overall and also have tamed a mix of bears and large horses of some kind that they now use as their mounts.

This group contains at most a tenth of the armies size though, most of them will be at most clothed in some underclothing with rough wooden clubs as their weapons.'' At seeing the somewhat surprised faces of the soldiers he misinterprets its as them not understanding why the orcs haven't gained better weapons from the regions soldiers they would have had to defeat.

''The region they have taken up residence in is one that has never been very large or wealthy in any form, with before the Orcs came along somewhere between nine-hundred and a thousand farmers and lumberjacks being its only inhabitants. The noble family supposed to watch over it died out a few years ago without heirs after the last lord kicked his son out of the family for staying loyal to a commoner girl he had fallen for instead of agreeing to the match with a much older woman of noble birth his father had planned for him.''

After this he sighs. ''After the old lord died and with his son being unable to claim the lordship for himself, most of the small standing army under pay of the house left the region to join the Royal army. The only ones protecting the region after this were the members of the small regional militia, but as can be seen from how the orcs are now in control those either weren't enough to fight them head-on, or have just long since abandoned the regions former capital town.

That capital town is from back when the region still had some eighteen-hundred inhabitants, though most of the people left simply because there weren't any guards anymore at the largest employer in the region, the iron mine near the capital nor was the second largest employer, the noble's guard force, being paid anymore.''

After the explanation the generals look contemplative and exchange some looks with each-other, before Louise speaks up. ''I'll have to ask the princess if we can get this region under our control then, what is it called? We'll head there tomorrow, today will be spent on beating my sister in that duel and getting the main army settled properly.''

The headmaster nods at this. ''The region is a small county named les Mountagnes Rouges, after the iron ore that was long ago visible even on the outside of the mountain near regional capital.'' The generals seemed to startle at something, but the academy staff dismissed it, thinking that they might have a location with a similar name back home.

''I'll go write the letter to send to the princess, general Saito, can you and a few of your soldiers join me in this? So that you might also give some advice the situation?'' The young man takes her hand while bowing slightly and giving it a kiss before signalling to two of his men to follow them before turning back to the now blushing young woman.

''It will be my pleasure Milady, please lead the way.'' At this she walks out of the door with them following her, though still lightly blushing visibly more confident and calmer then she was less then five minutes beforehand. As the door opens it can be seen that most of the crowd outside has begun to leave already and with armed soldiers escorting her nobody wants to give the youngest de la Vallière reason to attack them, allowing them quick passage.

As the door closes behind them professor Colbert turns to the two remaining generals. ''Now sirs, you mentioned rising the efficiency of the production process of books and thus indirectly giving us a good chance of enlarging our capabilities at researching things, during this you mentioned several interesting devices. Do you have a moment to explain?''

At this Jean-Pierre nodded, and started speaking to the professor. ''Most certainly, we would also like to learn somewhat more about the world from the eyes of experienced somewhat higher ranking members of the society. While miss Vallière has been generous with information she is young and sadly enough a social pariah and thus understandably doesn't know everything about it.

It would be nice to know where it is the same and how it different about our society during this time period and as such I would love to exchange some information.'' The professor nodded to this and they started speaking to each-other with the headmaster listening in while his secretary and general Piet started a short conversation about the supply situation before both heading out together with a decent number of the soldiers in the room to assist in transporting the supplies and organizing the camp.

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Louise POV

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That was both frightening, amazing and embarrassing at the same time. It was definitely nice to have them stand up for me once again, though it was even nicer to feel Saito hug me. Those strong arms surrounding me, him telling me everything would be alright and how he would then lash out at my sister in my defence, maybe if I asked him to hold me tonight again….

No, bad thoughts, not good, you've only known him for a single day! Besides if there is one thing Kirche was right about it's the fact that I look childish and don't have much of a figure unlike hers. But… he did say that he thought I was beautiful, maybe I could make him examine it a bit more once we're alone, in my room, with less clothes in the way…. No, bad thoughts again! Not doing perverted stuff with my familiar!

Are you alright Louise, you look like you're thinking about something very deeply? I keep my face facing forward so he can't see the blush that's most likely heavily present on my cheeks, now I just have to hope that it doesn't come through my mental voice like it would through regular conversation.

I'm alright Saito, just completely overwhelmed by the entire situation. As I'm telling him this I notice we're nearing my room. I just hope that the dratted Zerbst cow stays inside her room and doesn't come out while we're nearby. As we arrive I ask Guards, Can the two of you stay at the door to ensure nobody interferes or tries to listen in on us?

After getting an affirmative reply I take out the key to unlock the door, while Saito opens it for me with a slight bow while I'm pocketing said key. After you milady Vallière. Okay now he has almost certainly seen the blush if its still present on my face, though I hope it has receded by now.

Thank you, Lord Hiraga. After I enter the room he follows me inside, hmm its better if the thing is actually locked. After he enters I turn around and lock the door before going over to him again, hugging him. He doesn't respond for a second, probably not having expected this, but then he brings his arms around me and hugs me to him, some slight tears falling from my eyes onto his chest.

''Thank you for everything you've done for me Saito, without your quick actions I might very well have been forced to marry a man that I have taken a severe disliking to over the years after my parents made a match between us when I was barely six years old.'' As I whisper this to him I look to his face with a small smile.

He looks down at me and smiles himself, making his strong features stand out even more. ''I'll always be there for you Louise, every person has the right to choose their own fate, especially in something as important as the person you'll spend a large portion of your life with.''

After he whispers this he kisses my forehead, making me bury my head in his chest again, still somewhat overwhelmed by just about everything that has happened today. He meanwhile rubs my back slightly. After remaining in this position for some time, I'm unsure how long, I remember what we came here for and sadly enough have to disengage from the hug.

As he looks at me questioningly I wipe away some of the tear tracks with my sleeves. ''I still need to write those letters for the Princess and knowing my classmates if they realize the two of us were alone here for long in this room they'll probably start creating rumours of us having sexual relations in here and I do not want those type of words to reach my mother before I've explained the actual situation to her through a letter.''

He nods at this and as I move to gather some paper, ink and a feather before I sit down at my desk. Wait a moment, I don't have a second chair. ''I hope you don't mind standing behind me too much Saito?'' As I say this I turn around only to notice that he's already standing in a seemingly comfortable position behind me to the right.

''It's no problem to me Louise, now who will you be writing to first? The princess or your parents?'' Not exactly the easiest to decide on actually, Henrietta needs to know about the entire situation quickly so we can have our answer by tomorrow though on the other hand the letters will probably leave with the same courier so the chance of them actually arriving earlier or later depending on which one I write first is relatively low.

''I'll start with the one to the princess first then, that one will probably be easier to write.'' After I say this he nods. ''Hmm okay how should I start? 'Dear Henrietta'? No to informal, maybe 'My queen'? I'm unsure about that one, its more formal then the first one but she herself will dislike it because of her not wanting to be addressed by title by those she considers friends.''

At this I heard Saito cough, making me turn towards him. ''I have a suggestion for this if you don't mind?'' As he asked this he looked at me, asking for permission to speak. After a nod from me he continues. ''What if instead you put not only the name but her full title in the following way: To my dear Henrietta, queen of Tristain. Sound good?'' Hmm I suppose its decent enough.

World: Halkeginia, Location: Command tent of the army camp near the Tristanian Academy of Magic. Time: 13.30 in the afternoon

3rd person POV

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Inside the tent eight people can be seen, two of them guarding the tents entrance, two stationed on the other side of the room two of them stationed in the corners of the room on the opposite side of the entrance and lastly four of them standing around a strategy table, though due to not having a map currently available the last group isn't fully able to use it for its usual function.

The guards are all dressed in the same deep red uniform coats with bayonet equipped rifles in their hands, however the four in the centre stand out due to the differences. One is a man that is tall and not yet middle aged but also not young anymore, dressed in a mostly blue uniform with black and gold accents at several points. He has has a triangular hat lying on the table in front of him showing off his black hair, with the sleeves of the uniform partially rolled up to his elbows.

His face and the parts of his arms that are visible show a number of scars, some small, some much more prominent like the one across one of his eyes on his face, the eye in question being an almost glowing ice blue, the same with the eye on the other side of his face. In a sheath at his side a sword can be found, with a rifle slung over his back. The man's name is Piet van Vlimmeren, the general in command of the United Provinces soldiers currently inside the camp with them.

On his right hand side, a tall middle-aged man with dark brown can be seen, whom is wearing a white uniform with blue and gold accents spread out over it, with just like the other man a dark coloured triangular hat completing the appearance, though this man is still wearing his. As weaponry this man only has a sabre hanging at his side.

His face also has some scars, though they are less in number and most of them older then what can be found on the face of van Vlimmeren, with his eyes being a vibrant green. This man is called Pierre D'Alain, commanding officer of the forces of the French Royal Army currently stationed inside the camp.

The third male figure at the table is a man both much younger and somewhat shorter than either of the others, barely out of his teens, only some 173 centimetres or 5 foot 8 inches compared to their height of 190 centimetres each or 6 foot 2 inches. He is wearing uniform similar to both of them, however where their uniforms are blue or white his is red in colour, with again the black triangular hat, though he has set it down onto the table in front of him.

He also is only armed with a sabre while only having one small visible scar on his cheek, which brings more attention to his black hair and blue eyes, the latter of which have a burning quality that makes them seem like balls of blue fire when the man is angered. He is Lord Saito Hiraga, leader of the British Royal Armed forces detachment at the camp.

A female voice can be heard, the only woman in the room. ''Okay so to summarize what has happened, firstly I have sent the necessary letters both to Queen Henrietta and my mother, we should get a reply to the one sent to the Queen this evening still, the capital is less then 3 hours away on horse so the courier can make his way back from it without too many problems even if the Queen takes her time writing the response or doesn't have time to deal with it until late in the afternoon.

I'm unsure of when we will get a reply on the one sent to my mother, though it is just as likely that she will read the thing, receive home an angry Eleonore less then a day after complaining about me and then decide that she needs to investigate the situation more closely. The effect of which would be her heading over here, investigating everything that has happened.''

The voice belongs to a young woman, who is wearing a Tristanian academy uniform consistent of a white blouse, a black skirt and a dark coloured cape. Her hair is pink coloured and long, framing a now stern but somewhat angelic looking face that shows the young woman isn't pleased with the situation. The name of this young woman is Louise de la Vallière.

''Secondly the work with the supplies has been done, giving the cooks enough food to prepare good meals for the men tonight while those same men now also have decent housing for the night.'' She looks around the room to ensure her information is correct, with all three of the men surrounding the table nodding in agreement to this.

''However we have yet to put together a strategy on how to deal with my sister, Gramont and the Mott siblings.'' At this she turns towards Pierre. ''By the way can you give the soldier that gave us this information that these two new gold coins as a reward for ensuring this was the correct information, it's not all that much but it should easily buy him a few meals and drinks.'' The general in question nods at this and accepts the two coins she gives him.

''Okay so Louise, can you go over them again however this time instead of their general capabilities as you gave them earlier, more personal things about them? You've told us their elemental alignments, mainstay capabilities and their general level of competence and that they're all relatively prideful. However you haven't told us anything about say what each specific person is so prideful about, or any fears they have you know of outside of the general ones that we can take advantage of in the psychological element of this battle.

Is one of the girls extremely proud about her looks for example? Or one of the guys very proud of his looks? Which of them has a severe idea of superiority over us outside of your sister? Are any of them afraid of explosions for instance? Or maybe of impaired vision of some kind? Any other potential fear?'' At this question from Pierre she can be seen to be thinking deeply for a moment.

''Well I know that Robert Mott is an overly proud idiot who like my sister takes the belief in noble superiority to an entirely new level. This means that unlike most nobles, who simply think that magic makes them stronger than the average commoner and give them a right to rule enacted by Brimir but that common soldiers most certainly still stand a decent chance at harming members of nobility, instead they think of it in the way that commoners are completely incapable of harming nobility in anything even slightly resembling a straight up fight unless they have a twenty to one numerical advantage.''

At this Piet spoke up, a dark look in his eyes. ''So the same ideas as that idiot girl Von Zerbst had? About how they a group of mostly nearly untrained mages with only a few that have actually experienced combat of any kind would have been able to take us down with ease and few losses even though we had both superior numbers, a large amount of troops with combat experience and had already been preparing for a battle in the first place?''

Louise nods at this. ''That but to a more extreme level. For all of her talk thinking back on it, that was mainly to gain a superior negotiating position, while she probably did believe we would win that was because she thought could afford to retreat into a castle fortified by magical wards that can withstand siege for a day easily while the nearest royal army depot is less then a few hours away.

She probably expected to lose some students in the defence of the front door before significant numbers of the academy staff arrived in case it did come to a fight, either that or she expected Gramonts golems to have a decent chance of being replaced fast enough to hold the small entrance when given support fire by her and Colbert's capabilities in fire magic and Tabitha's ice daggers.

While with the knowledge I've gained from you now I know that most of us would not have been able to make it to the castle due to your canons having a serious advantage in reach over the ones we have in Halkeginia and thus you would have easily been able to rip us to shreds before we actually would get back through the front door, allowing you to charge in before a serious defence could be mustered.''

''If what you say is true then the girl is much less of an idiot then I thought. Still why would she insult you in that same sentence if she was trying to get the upper hand in the negotiations? We were standing there and had just heard you had summoned us… wait did she think we would be stupid enough to fall for the idea that if you, the one they considered a failure, could summon an army that everyone else in their group would be much more capable?''

Louise shook her head at this. ''It was most likely more that she expected you people to be distracted enough by her figure to slip the insult to me by you without you even noticing. She has oft used this type of tactic against students and teachers both, and it has worked very often, so she probably got overconfident.

We also kind of have this millennia long family rivalry going on between the Vallières and the Zerbsts and she apparently likes the idea of holding herself to the tradition of continuing it, even in situations where it is not a good idea to do so. And she is right in part, I haven't ever done a spell we were taught about in class correctly with the exception of the summoning ritual.''

At this last bit she looks depressed, though it doesn't last long as Saito hugs her to him while ruffling her hair and caressing her back. She buries her head into his chest, while in the background Piet and Pierre can be seen smiling slightly. ''Louise there is no reason to be depressed, you do remember what the man that has become your people's god said to you right? You are very strong and have just been attempting to use the wrong elements.

If you try to forge something using steel and are using the same methods as you would use to forge copper or bronze you wouldn't get very far would you?'' she nods at this though not fully knowing where he's going with it. ''Then would you call steel weaker then bronze when it somehow doesn't work properly using the methods to forge bronze weaponry?''

She thinks on this for a moment before smiling up at him then burying her head into his chest once more before hugging him more tightly and whispering ''No I wouldn't. Thank you Saito, you seem to always know just what to say to cheer me up.'' Unknown to the two who are both lost in the other for the moment, Piet and Pierre are talking softly to each other and chuckling about ''Young love''.

After letting the two stay like this for a minute or so however, Piet decides that they need to get back to business. So he clears his throat loudly before declaring ''Now if the two lovebirds can focus on the actual planning session instead of being too busy declaring eternal love for the other, that would be nice. We still have a duel to get to after all, you can act like this tonight in your room when we're done here.''

This makes both Louise and Saito jump away from each other, both with completely red faces. After which Louise clears her throat. ''Right, back to the strategy. So as I pointed out my sister and the older Mott sibling will most likely underestimate both you and myself badly, we can use this to our advantage by having one of you storm through his defences and take him down hard, while I have Saito near me and we take on the combination of Guiche de Gramont and my older sister.

As soon as whomever fights Robert is done with him, he goes to either assist the other in taking care of the younger Mott sibling or performs a flanking attack on Gramont and my sister, the action depending on who is in need of the most assistance at that point in time.'' At this all three men nod, though Saito raises a question that is on all their minds.

''It is a solid plan Louise, however it hinges on your sister keeping Gramont near her while the other two fight on the flanks, how are you so certain this is what will happen during the duel?'' Louise meanwhile smiles at all three of them in a sinister way that seems very unfit for her face, though unknown to the others Saito thinks a bit differently of it then they do.

''Oh that is easy, my sister will see this mainly as a bonding exercise between her and those three, with how much she will underestimate us. Guiche de Gramont meanwhile is a young man that not only has the type of looks she likes but has also proven himself to be a capable fighter in duelling tournaments on top of being charming and decently intelligent. Last but not least he is a bit of a playboy, which is also known far and wide.''

At this all three of the others around the table look surprised, though it is not limited to them with the guards also looking at Louise with their mouths agape. ''Are you telling me that your sister, who looks at least a decade older then him and potentially is even older then that, is going to let her arousal rule her mind over viable combat strategy because she wants to get into the bed of a teenage Casanova and possibly ensnare him in a marriage contract of some kind?''

As she nods at this, understanding the general meaning of the term due to the runes, the others around the room including the guards are even more shocked, though the one visibly having the worst of it is Pierre. ''Are you really sure about this? I don't doubt your capabilities or knowledge, however this seems just too… foolish I think for a person that is acclaimed to be a researcher of certain renown in the land.''

''It is more that my sister oft has been rejected by people that our parents were trying to get her into a marriage contract with due to her personality, I wasn't joking when I said that her reaction was probably in part because she had just been rejected for the tenth or eleventh time due to just how bad she treats everyone she meets while looking down on them, including most of her prospective husbands.''

She seemed to think about continuing however Piet held up his hand to stop her. ''While this would probably be interesting blackmail material at some point or even just a nice conversation to pass the time with, its currently not the best idea to talk about since we're both on a time table and also will not be able to use this during the actual fight because of the image we're going to try to portray.

Men who will stand to protect the innocent and their cause but are also deadly professional soldiers who will destroy anything standing in their way if such an action is necessary is not an image we'll get by having banter with a young woman in which we insult her choices in regards to her potential sexual partners.''

At this Louise nodded her ascent before thinking for a moment and going back to the original topic. ''Okay so you all now do believe me on the whole 'She will place herself at the centre with Gramont part?''' Getting three nods at this she continued ''What do you three have to add to this plan? I think it is good but you two have taken part in active combat on numerous occasions as far as I know.'' At this she pointed at both Piet and Pierre.

''And all three of you have training for a type of battle and overall warfare that I cannot even grasp in the slightest due to its sheer scale,'' she shook her head ''Preparing for potential conventional warfare against and besides countries that have peace-time standing armies larger than the entire population of Tristain with wartime armies possibly as large as the entire human population of Halkeginia…''

She shook her head in disbelief again, though it was easily visible she did believe her familiars were speaking the truth, it was simply so far removed in scale from what she was used to that she didn't know how to truly process the information. The others looked at he in sympathy, each of them experiencing the same type of disbelief, though more directed on just how everything in the past few hours had come to pass.

''Hmm I personally think the plan is a good baseline however we need more information about just how the Mott kids will fight to figure out who would do a better job at taking on who, Pierre here has a slight advantage over me in flexibility and inventiveness in combat situations,''

Piet nodded to the man as he said this ''However I myself am more experienced in close quarter combat, especially infantry close quarter combat, have actual formal training in fighting with a sword extremely similar to the ones we're currently using and have a larger amount of raw striking power due to a much larger amount of muscle mass.

This means that while he's got a better chance of dodging whatever magic the opponents will be throwing at us, I have a much better chance of taking them out fast or dodging hits from whatever weapon they use while in close quarters. While on the one hand this means I'll be able to defeat the male sibling fast enough for Gramont to not actually have a chance of realizing just how much support Robert needs.

On the other hand I'm also more likely to not have a problem handling both a number of golems spawned by Gramont and an actually competent magical combatant at the same time due to being able to get in closer early enough for her not to be able to use her magics ranged advantage in its entirety, and such a ranged fight would be a disaster for us since we cannot use full deadly force against these children while they will sadly enough can use it against all of us except Louise.''

Louise visibly paled at this. ''Full deadly force?! This is a duel, why the hell would either side use that? No matter who does the killing in the group their entire side would be brought to court as a group and judged on it as if they were all murderers!'' At this Piet and Pierre looked at her deadpan before Piet reacted.

''Less then fifteen minutes ago you said that one of them had bought the Judge to such an extreme that he not only got away with being caught on attempted rape more than once but also with attempted murder of a classmate and the actual murder of two familiars.'' She nodded and moved to say something but Piet held his hand up to stop her.

''I know, we're humans instead of animals and there will this time around also probably be a number of noble witnesses, however if the Judge is bought so badly that he let one of them go in clear cases like that then he will probably rule that this was in the fire of battle and a kill or be killed moment against an enraged familiar, making it self-defence and at most giving them a fee and nothing more.

Meanwhile if we do the same the bought Judge will even if it was actually in a killed or be killed scenario rule it as first grade murder and have all three of us sentenced to death while you will most likely have your rank as a member of the Vallière family removed and be cast out from nobility.''

Louise paled considerably as she considered the possibility, her anger melting like snow in the summer sun. ''You're right, that is actually a very likely possibility. This also means I can't just send a very strong explosion against them and take them all out at once, that would have a decent chance of actually maiming one of them, even though there would be no chance of it actually killing any of them.

Now I believe Guiche the Gramont and my sister are unlikely to actually use deadly force, with Gramont because he'll see this as a sparring or training exercise, and a such just not a place where deadly force should be used while my sister will be too afraid of the damage her public image will suffer if it comes out she has killed a familiar of her youngest sibling.

So the main threats to our safety are first Robert, who is simply a buffoon that doesn't think about long term consequences plus who would also believe it is his divine right to squash some people that are in his mind upstart commoners who do not know their place. The second threat is Katherina who will probably see any deaths on our side as removing my support and thus lowering my chance of becoming a threat to her politically in the long term.''

The three generals apparently decided her assessment was reasonable enough, as all nodded at this, after which she continued. ''I think the best option is thus to have the person that is strong enough physically to get in close fast enough to negate most of the advantage she will have with both magic and a lethal combat mindset fight Katherina, so Piet can you handle her while Pierre takes down Robert?''

Piet nodded his ascent at this, after which she turned to Pierre. ''Are you also in agreement?'' Causing more nodding to be performed. ''I believe the best option after you take him out is for you to go assist Piet, while it would be nice to have the support unless we're losing badly for some reason it is better to simply take out the people who will actually try to kill us the moment we can. Do any of you still have suggestions?''

'' I have one actually but its less related to our overall strategy and more what exact role you will be playing in it.'' Louise raised an eyebrow at this but nodded for him to continue. ''You see, one of the most important parts of modern warfare strategy is using suppression to keep enemies from advancing or returning fire however in the open against an attacking force to do the opposite.

While we can't use deadly force, we could have you send a very large amount of lesser explosive spells at both the golems and your sister at a fast pace, forcing them to move forward to close in with you to stop you from just pummelling them at range. Especially since your sister will probably be surprised at just how effective your magic will be at doing this, heightening the chance of her making a rash decision like charging towards you instead of having Gramont create earth based defensive structures.

Meanwhile Gramont will probably get closer earlier, with Saito handling him and most of the Golems, allowing you to use your smaller and more athletic form to dance around your sister on the battlefield and wear her down fast, though you don't have the raw strength to beat her in a fully physical fight, your smaller profile and speed should give you enough of an advantage. Sound good?'' Louise nodded, looking very excited at the idea.

''While Eleonore is better than me at physical raw strength contests, she is very bad in endurance so I shouldn't experience too many problems, especially not since I think Saito will be able to easily beat Guiche in a close quarters fight, because while he has a decent amount of experience, he also has a large amount of overconfidence because all his opponents except for his brothers have till now been teenagers with little in the way of actual direct physical combat training, all of his tournament opponents relied on magic alone as far as I know.''

Piet nodded. ''Good to know. Now are we all done on that topic?'' After getting three nods he continued. ''Good onto the next topic. I propose we send some infantry and canons ahead tomorrow morning with a single commanding officer while the remainder of us keep here for a bit and have some further negotiations with the school about supplies in the way of food and drink for the troops in exchange for our services as either soldiers or workers?''

''I like the idea though I did just get a message from Steve that he prefers to join us with his general bodyguard unit while Pierre stays behind, do you have a problem with that Pierre?'' His answer was a shake of Pierre's head. ''Okay, alright then after the negotiations the British and Papal general units will join us in heading there, together with the Gendarmerie unit since they'll probably end up being stationed in the region anyways if you do not have a problem with that either? I myself will be leading the infantry on the journey meanwhile.''

''After the region has been captured and established I'll probably head over there myself to work with the locals for us, since Saito is the main familiar the closeness to Louise this brings is currently already showing itself.'' An embarrassed ''Hey!'' in the background from both Saito and Louise was ignored by everyone else in the room.

''Meanwhile Steve doesn't actually speak the local language and would thus always need a translator, which as the commander of our forces in the region would be a bad thing, while you Piet are our best field officer and as such should not be bound to managing the defences and armies of a single province.

I meanwhile would profit from being in one area, as I can then also work more on advancing the local understanding of technology and thus giving our faction a large scientific advantage over whatever opponents we may have in the future.'' At this he turned towards Louise. ''Think on it for a moment Louise, I could ensure that your queen and country will have enough of an economic and military advantage over all other factions and countries quality wise that it will in large part negate the advantage all your current potential enemies have: far superior manpower, while the settler infantry units will be able to assist in both the actual practical application of the research and in speeding up the non-military parts of it.''

She nods at this with a smile on her face, overcome with happiness at the possibility of her country for once not ending up on the verge of collapse and saved only by miracles or another nations incompetence every time they get dragged into a war with one of the giants surrounding it. ''I am very interested in the idea, please do tell me more about this after the duel I over. For now let us gear up and then head towards the duelling grounds.''

They all agreed, though they had little to gear up with so they all just settled for checking their current gear then all including Louise taking a dagger each as spare weapons.

World: Halkeginia, Location: Duelling grounds near the Tristanian Magical Academy, Time: 14.30 local time

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Guiche de Gramont POV

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Where the hell is Robert? Our opponents got here nearly ten minutes ago, me, his sister and the elder Miss Vallière have been here for the past twenty minutes, however for some reason the damned fool cannot even bother to show up on time? That buffoon is such a waste of noble blood, even these commoners in front of us would have been more worthy of it.

Luckily we managed to confirm they are all magicless commoners, though with their speed that they showed according to Miss Vallière in their scuffle with the teaching staff in the main hall, the familiar runes have probably enhanced already well trained and decently equipped soldiers to a level where they can be a real challenge to us even in the open.

Now if only I could convince the lovely Eleonore or that brute Robert of this we would have had a much easier time in the planning session. Surprisingly enough lady Katherina was the only one other than me to see just how dangerous our opponents could be if they actually intend to maim or kill.

We are literally facing three experienced soldiers who on top of their physical enhancements probably have also gained some kind of unknown power gained from their familiar runes and are lead by a young woman who while very bad at magic of nearly all kinds also has the tendency to turn anything she casts in explosions of varying levels of strength!

This when supported by familiars who can keep physical dangers such as my Golems, sword and the others direct attack spells away for at least thirty seconds at a very low estimate means she could very well create an explosion equal to the actual line level fire spell explosion meant to be used against enemies in non-enchanted armour!

While such things would be easy to survive if still painful if we actually had the enchanted armour of the average ground bound mage knight like my brother's unit has, however when it is used against unarmoured youngsters? Unless we finish it quickly enough for her not to be able to have the time to actually strengthen the spell, it might very well end up with one of us maimed or even possibly dead if she is angry enough.

We will still win of course, but winning this duel is less important than all four of us surviving it, which will be a bit harder with half our side not recognizing the fact that our opponents can very much be a lethal threat to us from the moment the match starts.

Finally there is Robert but… why does he have a small crowd behind him? I thought we explicitly tried to keep the news of exactly when the match was somewhat quiet so that there wouldn't be more than a dozen or so bystanders to lower the chances of projectiles that miss their targets hitting random people?

''Robert Du Mott, what in the Founders name made you think that creating a large crowd of bystanders for a duel between trained soldiers and a mage with explosive spells on one side and an Earth mage, wind mage, water mage and a fire mage on the other side would actually be safe in any way, shape or form?''

It seems the younger of the Vallière sisters agrees to me on this, which is good considering that it means her sister will probably do the same ''Why would it be bad Louise? So afraid of losing this fight that you don't want a crowd? They'll know anyways when I take you home to get you married to the viscount!''

Their mother is Karin the Heavy Wind. How the hell does the lovely Eleonore not realize just how dangerous this can be? I mean if we had a proper duelling field, sure we could do that, however we don't have one and if we try to create one ourselves we'll be too magically exhausted to fight efficiently.

''Are you crazy sister? Do you want to have to send the letters to their parents to explain that 'I apologize deeply but your son died from a wind blade hitting their face when I fired one at somebody in a duel but that person dodged, and well your son was in the crowd?' I thought you were a researcher at our country's best academy for Founder's sake, you do have a mind analytic enough to notice the problems in your reasoning right?''

At hearing this I turn towards Louise who is staring at her sister in astonishment and I actually have to agree with her. Turning back to lovely Eleonore I see that her temper is gaining ground over her ability to reason properly, so I'll have to interfere. ''While she could have formulated it better, your sister is correct in the sense that it is not a good idea to have a large crowd here, dear Eleonore.'' When I stop for a moment at this to gauge her reaction I see her anger evaporating while she looks at me, good.

''Well said Miss Louise de la Vallière, Guiche da Gramont. This crowd is too large for the duel to remain safe outside of it being held in a duelling field, however as a solution for that Mister Colbert and myself will create a temporary duelling field to not only keep the crowd safe, but also to keep them from interfering with the match.''

I turned in surprise at hearing the headmaster say this, and yes there he was standing, with Mister Colbert by his side, who was muttering about something that I couldn't hear from this distance. That is a relief and takes away most of my worries about the crowd. However something still needs to be addressed, so I grab Robert by the shoulder and drag him close.

''What the hell were you thinking having us wait here to get a crowd? And now with the actual duelling field our range of motion has severely decreased, meaning we can't just keep moving to stay out of their range! While the crowd will be nice when we win, this will lower our chances of getting out of this match without one or more of us getting severely injured by a significant amount!''

He pushes my hand off his shoulder and whispers back venomously ''Stop being a coward Gramont, this'll be easy as could be. They're just commoners and they don't even have ranged weapons of any kind. With your golems to keep them at a distance they have no way in hell to actually do shit to us. As for the Zero, well that one will be handled by her sister with ease considering the zero can't even cast a single spell correctly, no need to worry about it.''

She can't cast a single spell correctly. What is this idiot thinking! Sure this would give us an upper hand in a competition or in an actual one on one duel, however with all her spells turning into explosive blasts and with Karin the Heavy wind as her mother, she can easily just use her magic in the same role canons are used in on the field.

And yes, my golems can hold them off, but they aren't a true match for multiple organic soldiers because I have to direct every single one of them on my own while also keeping enough of my concentration at my own body to defend myself and use other spells efficiently. If the situation keeps going downhill like this they might actually have a chance of winning the duel just by some of us underestimating them so badly on a battlefield were they have most of the advantages!

Sigh, nothing to do about it, I shall just have to switch to the state of mind for battle. They are nearly finished with the spell to create the duelling field, we're in the positioning that Eleonore asked us to be in, the siblings holding the flanks, me in the middle. Looks like Louise will be facing us with a the younger dark haired soldier, the one that according to Eleonore's story moved very fast, hit her and then took multiple albeit low level spells in Louise's defence.

So he probably gained some kind of magic resistance and speed enhancements from his familiar runes, that does make me the best on our side to deal with him actually. I see the shield around the duelling field going up ''Are you all ready?'' At this statement from the headmaster everyone either nods or gives affirmative answers to the headmasters statement.

''The match starts at the count of 1. Three, two, one, GO!'' Throwing the petals down I summon a single full unit of Earth golems and a single unit of Bronze ones, before giving them the mental commands. **Bronze golems stay with me and Eleonore, Earth Golems six of you defend Robert, six others defend Katherina, the remainder attack the enemy head-on!**

As I form a sword I hear the others casting some low level spells to test the waters, however the youngest man somehow parries the wind blades heading for himself and Louise with his sword while the other two dodge the spells aimed at them while moving forward. ''Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!''

Raising an Earth wall around myself and Eleonore on reflex I can feel some of the spells impacting, while not doing too much damage individually it will start breaking down the defences fast. My forward golems in the centre are all down, most due to the explosions one taken down by Louise's assistant, on the flanks most of them are also down already. ''Forward! We need to get in close with those two!''

Yes Eleonore as if I didn't understand that yet! This is going to be even harder than I thought. I'm going to need more golems, so throwing some more petals on the floor and spawning four more bronze ones it is. **Six bronze with me, one bronze defends Eleonore during our advance, last bronze go support Katherina, all surviving Earth golems hold on to previous orders!**

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Pierre POV

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As I dodge around a clumsy hit from one of the Golems in a side-step -with its hit almost seemingly in slow motion due to the speed boost the runes give me- while chopping it in half, I can see that Guiche sends the small wall he made forward, Gramont and Eleonore are both moving up behind the wall! Louise blasts the section that would hit her to pieces before sending some more spells in the hole to distract Eleonore, while Saito jumps over it before engaging both Gramont and six of the bronze golems he has spawned.

I can see Louise starting to trade spell-fire with her sister, neither hitting the other much due to both not being the most accurate and some of their spells hitting in mid-air causing some dust to start to go up. Though to be honest to Louise, part of the reason why

As I feel a warmth approach I duck just in time to see a whip of fire go over my head, need to keep my concentration to my own part of the fight. In the time that I was watching and warning the others the six golems near the boy moved forward, hmm I can use this. Charging ahead I duck somewhat to dodge the next stream of fire, cutting the golem to my right in half while grabbing the golem to my left, breaking its skin in a grab and throwing it at Robert.

Without looking if it has hit him I side-step, cut off the arm that was meant to hit me before cutting through its chest then kicking it's upper body at another golem behind it, the speed of it causing both to crumble to pieces. As I charge towards the last golem I see the boy aiming his wand in my general direction while kneeling slightly, forcing me to dodge a blow from the golem before I use said arm to pull it in between me and the boy.

With the fire immolating the thing, I dodge to the side and charge the final few metres towards the now panting boy, before kicking his wand out of his hand, pulling him up with my left hand and hit him in the face with the hilt of my sword. Letting him fall to the ground a quick check to be certain reveals him to be unconscious.

Looking towards the others I see Saito duelling with the Gramont kid and a collection of Golems, with the golems taking hits intended to take Gramont down non-lethally , distracting Saito long enough for him to escape some more hits while Gramont also uses his sword to parry and block attacks the golems miss.

Looking at Louise I can see that her sister is now trying to hit her with spells but Louise is stopping it by sending explosive spells into the wind spells, cancelling out both. Meanwhile her sister is getting bruises all over her body it seems by numbers of very small explosive spells with little force behind them hitting her or near her.

Piet is handling the girl he's fighting relatively well, actually he has disarmed her of her wand but she's somehow using magic? Never mind apparently she had two of them, and now the new wand is also out of her hand and he knocks her out. Though he does seem to have some slight wounds, it isn't anything to be truly worried about.

He looks at me and nods towards the other two. You go assist Saito, I'll assist Louise. I nod back to him in the open and move towards where Gramont and Saito are fighting still, stepping up behind one of the remaining two Golems and slashing it in half, giving Saito the opportunity to catch both opponents blades with his own and use his left fist to hit Gramont knocking him back and off balance, allowing me to slap the wand out of his hand with my sword, while Saito finishes off the last golem.

He valiantly tries to fight on but now that he's alone Saito simply blocks his hit, overpowers him and throws him to the ground with a sword at his neck. I look over to Louise and Piet to see that Eleonore is already on the ground seemingly unconscious. ''This match is over, the duel has been won decisively by Louise de la Vallière and her compatriots.''

Looking at the crowd I can see that they are somehow completely overwhelmed by the outcome, with the exception of the teaching staff and strangely enough the young blue haired woman what was her name, ah yes Tabitha. She also seems unsurprised by the turn of events. However her compatriots are less so, with the entire crowd gawking at us in a mixture of surprise, fear and disbelief.

''Yes! We won! Thank you, thank you!'' Turning to the sound I see Louise jumping into a hug with a not very surprised Saito, before she somehow finds the strength to also pull a surprised Piet into the hug. She then looks at me with puppy eyes…. How can I resist that. Walking over I also join the hug, careful not to crush Louise's small frame between Piet and myself.

''Ehm Miss Vallière, while I understand your elation at this victory, we need the healers to look over you and your companions wounds as well as those of your opponents. Can you please let them go?'' Louise squeaked, with Piet and myself worming our way out of the group hug while she tried to push away from Saito, only to fall towards the ground before he caught her and started supporting her.

Some members of the crowd looked as if they were going to make comments on this until Piet started growling slightly with, is that just an effect of the light or are his eyes really glowing? Oh well something to look into later, the crowd for their part looked horribly frightened, he must have really shown off in his fight or that Katherina girl was considered to be a much bigger deal to them then Louise did.

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World: Halkeginia, Location: Command tent of the extra-dimensional army stationed near the Tristanian Academy of Magic, Time: Shortly after the duel is over.

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3rd person POV

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As we look into the tent we can see Louise blushing still, though she has calmed down somewhat. This time around Piet isn't with them, being dragged to the healers after they saw the small cuts on his arms, even though he insisted it wasn't a big deal. This time around Steve was with them gathered around the table, though now there were chairs.

Louise and Saito sitting next to each other, with an empty seat on Louise's right for Piet, with Pierre sitting left of Saito, with Steve sitting between Pierre and Piet's intended seat. ''Okay the duel went very well and also shows that while magic can be very dangerous, it works in essence as the same type of equalizer any other high quality or advanced weapon would, in that the idea of it being used is more what gives it power when in the hands of people not trained in its use rather then the actual application of it.''

This conclusion got Pierre nods all around the table, including from Louise. ''Now let us start talking about what soldiers will be going towards the region besides the already agreed upon units. I propose we send in three of our four settler infantry units as at least one of those units is very likely going to be staying in that region long term, keeping one of the British ones back here in case all the other units want to settle there.''

They would continue talking about both what advantages Pierre's research could give the country of Tristain and what units would need to be part of the infantry detachment to the liberation of Les Mountagnes Rouges until dinner, after which they would continue for a while before Saito decided to call it a day when he saw how tired Louise had gotten from all of it, with her protesting but not actually being able to do much of anything against him when he carried her back up to her room.

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World: Halkeginia, Location: hallway to the bedroom of Louise de la Vallière in the Tristanian Academy of Magic, Time: 20.30 hours local time.

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Saito POV

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''But I don't want to go sleep yet Saito, it's still so early and I can go do more important things…'' This was followed by a yawn while she settled a bit more into my arms with her head snuggling against me shoulder.

Considering you just ended that sentence with a way too cute yawn Louise, I am not believing you right now. Wait I did not intend to actually send that to her! Hopefully she doesn't remember it tomorrow due to how tired she is right now. Actually with how I accidentally sent her a mental message and only realized afterwards I was doing it plus how stressful today was, it might be a good idea for me to also go sleep some.

''Saito?'' I looked at her, she was looking at me with those adorable puppy dog eyes I saw for the first time this afternoon but I already consider them some of the most powerful weapons I have ever seen. ''Could you please sleep by my side, after everything that happened I will *yawn* need something to assure me tomorrow it was all real. You also don't have anything you could use as a bed yourself, while my bed is more than large enough for two people.''

I should not do this, I shouldn't do this, it is taking advantage of her. I will just tuck her in, then go and sleep on the floor with my weapon at the ready as her guard inside the room. We sadly enough couldn't get any agreement from the school on posting some guards outside of her room, however that is understandable with this being the female dorms and all, while we can keep our people in check through telepathy they don't know about this.

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World: Halkeginia, Location: Bedroom of Louise de la Vallière in the Tristanian Academy of magic, Time: Some ten minutes later, POV: still Saito Hiraga

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And she ended up convincing me to settle in her bed with her after I pulled off some of my outer clothing, leaving me in my trousers and a shirt before she fell asleep in her academy uniform, somehow ending up with me lying on my back and her head planted firmly in the centre of my chest while she made cute snoring sounds with one of my arms around her. Oh well, I now just have to hope I'll wake up before anybody learns of this tomorrow morning.

Wait I just jinxed myself didn't I considering I thought the same thing of ending up in her bed ten minutes ago? Oh well there are much worse things I could be caught doing then just sleeping in a bed with a beautiful young woman cuddling me. Hmm this is a good position to fall asleep in anyways.

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World: Halkeginia, Location: ?, Time: the moment Saito falls asleep, still his POV.

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Hmm… wait where am I? Looking around the room I'm in I can see a very large table with a map on it, while Louise is looking around wildly standing near it. ''Why does this map show Halkeginia, why are most things in Tristain except the academy area somewhat greyed out but still visible enough while the remainder of the world and a few areas in Tristain are covered in a near black grey that you cannot see through except for the lighter grey their capitals? Why am I here alone?! Where is here!''

''Louise, you're not alone, I am here.'' As I am saying this I walk towards her and take her in my arms, with her returning the hug enthusiastically causing a by now somewhat familiar warmth to well up inside me at the feeling of her body against mine. As I look at the map I realize what it is. ''As for that map I think I know what this is supposed represent, since an earlier version of the simulator had a similar style campaign map. The simulation was called Empire Total War.''

She looked to me, now a bit confused, which was reasonable enough to be honest. I held up my hand to stop her questions for a moment. ''I'll answer your other earlier questions first, the reason the academy area is shown is because our army is here, meaning that due to our mental connection with the army we know roughly where everything is around here, how far along the creation of buildings are, and so forth.

Most of the remainder of Tristain is a light grey most likely not only because you consider them either allies or faction members due to your shared loyalty to the queen, but also because you actually know a lot of the rough locations of settlements and such in those regions. If my theory is correct, the dark patches are above regions you consider non-aligned.''

Looking at the map I manage to locate the Les Mountagnes Rouges region, bordering the academy's region. ''As you can see here this region is one that Tristain isn't truly in control of, however we do have basic information about it. So we can see the rough details through the dark grey, except for the small light grey pocket of this farming village where an unknown number of regional defence units flying the Tristanian flag are situated.''

Nodding at this she thanks me and I sit down for a moment, only for her to plop into my lap, causing me to bring an arm around her to keep her steady. She her head towards me smiling ''Thank you.'' Before turning back towards the map and asking ''So can you explain everything a bit further? This seems like it will be very useful in the future.''

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World: Halkeginia, Location: hallway near the bedroom of Louise de la Vallière in the Tristanian Academy of Magic, Time: 7.30 in the morning local time the day after the last entry

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3rd person POV

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In the hallway a maid can be seen knocking on a door asking ''Miss Vallière? Are you in there?'' When she doesn't get an answer the maid shrugs. ''She's probably asleep still, that duel and the following celebrations they might have had yesterday must have really tired her out.''

Opening the door she looks at the bed to see as expected a bulge and some pink hair sticking out of the top. She turns away only to then notice something that makes her freeze. Pink isn't the only colour of hair that can be seen, there is also very prominently black hair. Looking a bit closer she can see a man's face and part of his chest sticking out above the sheets, with Louise's head visibly on top of that chest and her hair covering most of the view of it. A very loud shout can be heard before the maid races out of the room, with the shout waking up both Saito and Louise.

The latter of whom then slowly realizes just what position she is in inside her bed with Saito while a young maid visited and saw them, not also seeing that both were still clothed. ''My life is ruined, my mother will kill me if she hears of this!'' Just after she is finished saying that Kirche von Zerbst appears in the doorway and stares for a while.

Eventually, after a few coughs and hand movements from Saito, Louise notices her standing there. ''What are you doing here Zerbst?''

''Well I never thought I'd see you taking my advice more seriously Louise, good job on getting this one in your bed that quickly!'' She laughs slightly after her last words but stops at a glare from Saito and starts moving away ''I'll just ehm leave then, bye!'' before starting to run as dignified as she could.

Meanwhile back in the room Louise is pacing while Saito starts rubbing his forehead. ''Why am I always the one that has to deal with this type of shit…'' Then he looks at Louise pacing around still. ''Okay this time around I've got to admit it is for a good reason at least.'' Sighing he steps out of the bed and starts on the task of calming down Louise.

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And that was it for this chapter, I hope you guys liked it. At the end of this chapter there will be the character indexes of Louise and all three of the generals involved in the fighting, with some slight changes as a result of the duel. There will also be a battle report, though in this chapter no sentients died in the fight, so it will be pretty short in comparison to future ones.

Next chapter will have the battle for les Mountagnes Rouges between Louise's army and the orcs.

Before that however I will answer all reviews posted on the story until now, in case others were wondering about the same things and because I realized it is not a good idea to send personal messages to everyone in case somebody else has the same question.

Kirov of the USSR: Thank you for the compliment and the advice, I do think it is a realistic way for them to react though. All three of them are familiar with the customs on Earth on how to interact with modern royalty, however they are now interacting with what is as far as they know Feudal or early modern royalty, with a very high possibility of absolute monarchy.

Because of this they act in a more deferential way then they would back home, simply because they are unsure of exactly how the etiquette for this royalty works and do not want to screw up diplomatically when they are an army without supply in a land completely foreign to them with no known way of calling in support from back home.

On top of that they also have runes carved in their hands that are supposed to make any type of positive feelings they have towards their summoner somewhat more prominent (In this story it is this, in canon it would just create new feelings altogether however if that were to happen the mind link between the armies would cause them to find out about it relatively quickly.).

Still thank you for telling me of your opinion and in future chapters they will probably interact with them closer to how they would with modern monarchy because they will have gained the necessary supplies and base of operations by that point, plus the backing of another royal family member in the form of Louise.

PEROCONCINO: It might be a bit hidden in the name descriptions, but they all have the runes and can use them to control weapons. Unlike canon Saito, these are all military men. Every single object around them is a weapon to them. I.e. If they take the wheel of an air-ship, that air-ship is a weapon, their own bodies are weapons.

This means that instead of Canon Saito who needs to have something at hand, they can just call upon the power of the runes whenever they wish. This in combination with the supernatural capabilities of their bodies will make them some of the most dangerous beings in Halkeginia in contests of individual combat.

However while they can take on all but the strongest of mages in 1 on 1 fights especially with special things like deflecting certain low level spells with their blades once the runes are active, the main thing about the generals will be their ability to strengthen their soldiers and how this will grow.

By the end of the story they will be able to turn certain defeat in complete victory simply by appearing on the battlefield and taking command, at least if they are all still alive by then, with Louise growing in much the same way.

Guest: I am trying to solve the text wall problem, please review again if you read this on if this is better or not.

flo463: I am trying to create paragraphs, however due to conversion problems from word document form to the website document form it will sometimes go wrong. Please reply again if possible on whether or not it is better now.

Next up, no as said before no oc replacement, as far as the plans are now it won't be a Saito x harem. This is partially because I think I won't be able to write that type of relationship in a convincing enough manner for it to be an enjoyable read, which kind of ruins the whole reason behind putting it into the story.

However the main reason I don't plan on using it is because realistically a human being with a decent enough character to actually get enough females interested in him for such a relationship hailing from modern Japan while being heavily influenced by western history is near certain to see a multi-partner relationship such as a harem as taking advantage and/or abuse of the other people in said relationship and as such refuse to be part of it unless they are forced to by the circumstances.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the topic of how creative assembly could have made the game better and which one is better. The thing is that because it is a video-game made to be playable for teenagers and that it can be run on your average laptop you cannot truly put everything into it to do honour to how a fractured city-state based society such as there was in ancient Greece works.

Another reason is that because unlike in reality the Romans aren't in a near constant state of civil war, meaning that you need to group together other cultures into united nations that they were never really part of to ensure playing as Rome isn't the easiest thing in the world, even after weakening the nations with structured near professional militaries badly due to it being, well, a video game in which your troops actually have to follow orders.

Where in reality nearly the only orders that could be given when your forces are little more than a coalition of warbands is 'there is the enemy, charge!' or 'we wait and ambush them in this rough area!' and then hope that they would actually listen, because you would lose nearly all control except for those fighters extremely near you once the fighting started.

So they kind of needed to build something in to ensure there would actually be a challenge to play as Rome, meaning that they needed to add some people together. Meanwhile Carthage was a trading empire that relied on mercenaries almost completely to fight its wars. The only reason they were actually a large threat to the romans at any point was the fact that Rome at that point was extremely bad at building ships and the Hannibal family being very capable leaders at a point in time where Rome was weakened by both infighting and numerous other wars that were going on.

xxwarlovexx: Well here is another chapter to read, hopefully you also like this one.

Guest: It was caused by problems between transition from my word documents to the websites own document storage, however I've been trying to fix that. If it is better now please review again if you are reading this, if its still bad please also review so I can work on it some more.

TDL: Thank you for the compliment and I hope you still like the story.

 **Louise de la Vallière**

Category: Leader  
Class: Faction leader (She has both overall command of her factions military, but is also the political leader/head of state. Whenever entering a battlefield will have supreme command of all her factions troops in the area. However, said faction is a protectorate of the Tristanian crown)  
Men: 1  
Firepower: 2 to 500 (Depending on what spell is being used, how much power is put into it, at what range it hits the opponent and if she has her wand or not. Her usual spell of choice, the 'fireball' type explosion spell, does 10 to 120 damage depending as said before on the power put into it)  
Range: 50 to 350 (depending both on what spell is currently being used and if she has her wand or not, since both can either shorten or enlarge the range. A combination of using the wand and her fire-ball spell at full power together has the 350 range.)  
Accuracy: 15 without wand, 20 with wand  
Munition: 1 to 250 (depending both on how much power is put into the spell, at what range the attack will hit and if she has her wand or not, with no wand the maximum damage in the strongest spell (500) uses up all available magic, while with a wand she can fire 2 of those, but nothing stronger because that is the maximum amount of power the wand can channel at once.) (2 to 500 if the Void is with me activates regularly, 4 to 1000 if The Void is with me activates supercharged)  
Melee attack: 2  
Charge bonus: 2  
Defence: 2  
Morale: 8 (16 with Noble's Duty activate, 24 with For the Monarch activate. 24 morale means literally completely impossible to rout no matter what happens, so combining them wouldn't add anything.)

The third child of the main branch of the De La Valliere family, with her mother originally having said name and her father (the bastard child of the grandfather of the current Princess, who despite his heritage was seen as a brother by the last king) taking the name after marrying Karin de la Vallière.

Louise is currently 4 foot 8 inches foot (145 centimetres) tall and 17 years old. Due to her father's lineage and the fact that the current heir to the throne is an only child, Louise de la Vallière is the fourth in line for the throne of Tristain, with before her being crown princess Henrietta, Eleonore de la Vallière and Cattleya Vallière.

She is often seen as a problem due to people not understanding how her magic works, which made them think she had no ability to shape magic and as such was seen as a shame of a mage by her eldest sister and most of her 'peers' at school. Her mother, unknown to her, while not liking the fact that her daughter couldn't do normal magic, did understand the implications of the ability to create different calibre explosions with every spell cast, and then being able to cast those explosions many more times than her peers could cast their own spells.

She didn't interfere in the problems between sisters, thinking in her 'rule of steel' line of thought that the conflict would only make Louise stronger as long as it didn't kill her. This has left the girl very inept socially, which makes it even harder to gain friends, but has also both created a hidden steel right under the surface of her personality and made her become unquestionably loyal to those few that have managed to earn said loyalty, including her older sister Cattelaya and the current Princess of Tristain Henrietta.

She will do anything for them, no matter the cost to her personally, consequences be damned as long as the job will get done and the person in question is saved. When during the ritual she summoned a veritable army of thousands and was told shortly afterwards that it was her magic that gave most of them a chance at new life, she was both shocked but also extremely elated, she will now prove to the world that she was worth much more than a simple trophy wife with nobody being able to disprove that it was she that had summoned entire armies.

She has made some headway into this path already afterwards by defeating her sister and a trio of others in a duel where she was supported by her familiars, however a partially true rumour was started the morning afterwards of her having a romantic relationship with one of her familiars, which might cause trouble in the future.

 **Abilities**

Void magic

Nature magic (Locked, will unlock once this person gains either the 'A hero of the nation, shield of the people' or the 'Enemy of mankind, demon of legend' trait)

Explosion magic (this person has a specialty for explosion magic, making them much more attuned and capable at this then most)

The Void is with me (will activate as a side effect when either Noble's duty or For the Monarch activates, enlarges her magical reserves by 2 times when either one is active, by four times if both are active at the same time.

Will not change firepower maximum because of the fact that the regular maximum firepower is also the largest amount that can be channelled through both Louise's body and her wand without damaging either currently. Will change in the future once both her body gets stronger and/or the wand gets replaced with a better version.)

Mark of the summoner (Allows the summoner to use the same type of mental communication a faction leader has with their subjects in a Total War series game to give orders to everyone that swears loyalty to her. The disadvantage of this link is that only words can be sent, and that unlike in the Total War series long distances can decrease the strength and clarity of the link. Also allows to view city management as it is shown in Empire: Total War.)

 **Technological abilities**

Enchanted armour (Gives +4 to defence and a higher level of heat resistance. Currently being held onto by her mother and will be given to her after she successfully commands forces in a battle for the first time)

Wand-sword (Can both function as a close combat weapon in which function it will give her +3 melee attack and +2 charge bonus, can also handle not only 50% more magical power being pushed through it at once but also strengthens the magic being pushed through by 20%, enabling Louise to use more of her full power at once if necessary and heavily strengthening the effects of said full power. Being held onto by her mother currently and will be given to her after she successfully commands forces in a battle for the first time.)

 **Traits**

Theoretical knowledge of magic (due to hours of studying for theoretical knowledge of magic and the potential applications of many spells to a much higher degree then a regular mage, this person can now more easily devise tactics both with and against groups of mages. +1 command when fighting against an army mostly consistent of mages, +1 command when leading an army mostly consistent of mages into battle)

For the Monarch (This trait is the result of her close relationship with the current crown princess. When anything is seen by her as being even remotely a threat to Tristain's royal family she will be either victorious or die in battle. When activated triples her base morale, gives her +1 command ability and her sheer determination will inspire her troops, +1 morale to all units fighting by her side on the battlefield.)

Noble's duty (This ability started to exist out of the great dedication towards duty this person has, which makes them take the duty all members of Nobility have in their eyes to defend the commoners extremely seriously, especially when said rights are being infringed upon by other nobles.

When activated doubles this persons/units base morale and gives +1 morale to armies with similar views and/or mostly non-mage troops when the person with this trait is the commander of the armed forces)

Horsemanship (Is good enough at riding a horse that it doesn't diminish his/her combat capabilities while riding one)

Mentioned in dispatches (+1 morale, +1 to command when leading infantry units)

Rumours of a common lover (Rumours float around about this member of royalty/nobility being in a relationship with a person of lower social standing. +2 love from the lower and middle classes, -1 love from the nobility.)

My people are my family (This leaders cares greatly for his or her subordinates, which those subordinates know and admire their leader for. +2 love from the common populace, +1 love from the nobility/high class, +1 morale in battle for any friendly forces)

Multilingual (This person has the ability to speak more than 3 languages, both enabling easier diplomacy and giving him more prestige in the eyes of nearly every member of the population, though mainly so for the nobility. +5% chance of convincing people your argument is correct, +2 love from the nobility, +1 love from the lower classes, +5 diplomatic prestige)

 **Requirements to recruit:**

Special units are referring to specific people, the 'hero' units and leaders of their factions, which means that it is impossible to actually recruit most of them outside of personally convincing them to join your side over whatever group they are siding with now.

 **General Saito Hiraga**

Category: Leader  
Class: General  
Men: 1  
Range: - (will change in the future, but currently doesn't have a ranged weapon)  
Accuracy: - (50 normally on average, 70 with runes on average, with will of steel and runes both together 90)  
Reloading skill: - (normally 30, with runes 50, Gandalfrs and runes both 70)  
Melee attack: 16 (32 when runes are activated, 48 Gandalfrs steel conviction and runes both)  
Charge bonus: 15 (30 when runes are activated, 45 Gandalfrs steel conviction and runes both)  
Defence: 14  
Morale: 16 (24 when Gandalfrs steel conviction activates)  
Recruitment cost: -  
Upkeep cost: £2 (spent on food and equipment upkeep only)  
Command ability: Between 9 and 14 command capability depending on the situation  
Army bonus morale: +7 morale

Saito Hiraga is a 5 foot 8 inches (173 centimetres) tall 22 year old man of Japanese origin. He was hired by Creative Assembly to work on their new VR project, which started on the 15th of October 2018 and has become good friends with his direct superior in this project and the three co-workers that he spends most of the day with during testing. Unknown to Saito, the reason behind selecting him was not done on any physical abilities or disabilities he may have had, but a combination of a cultural and educational factors.

Saito Hiraga was born in a family that has a long history of martial service in the Japanese military or later on self-defence forces, with his father, uncles, aunts and one grandfather all having served in the self-defence force while his other grandfather and one of his great grand-fathers had served as part of the Japanese imperial military.

While Saito is part of the JDF reserve forces and as such can be called into service in case Japan will ever get attacked, his main focus was on his studies in history, where he was specialised in 18th century Europe and the Middle East. His fascination with this specific time period had started after he played Empire Total War in 2012, and fell in love with it. Because of this, when Creative Assembly attempted to recruit him for their VR project for the game Empire Total War in September 2018, he jumped on it.

Due to a combination of high intellect and his large knowledge base on this time period, he had gone through a faster than regular program in his studies, which caused him to be a history professor at age 21. This has had him be not only a test-subject for the project, but also one of the historians working on ensuring the outfits, buildings and flags that can be seen on the battlefield and campaign map in VR mode fit with the actual historical nations they are supposed to represent. However after he had worked on the project for only slightly more then two weeks, he and 3 of his co-workers were teleported out of their VR chambers by way of a portal summoned by a young mage from another world.

However due to a combination of outside interference and the way that the VR machines worked, instead of just the 4 of them being transported to Halkeginia in their jumpsuits, they instead appeared with the clothing, gear and armies that they would have had in the VR session, which meant they were now commanding thousands of men armed and equipped with 18th century military gear in what seemed to be a medieval fantasy world.

He and his comrades have also gained a small bit of fame among the local populous for their combative capabilities, after they were able to defeat a group of mages in a four on four duel, albeit with one of the four being their summoner Louise de la Vallière instead of former Captain, now General, Steve Churchill.

 **Abilities**

Can rally routing troops

Inspires nearby units

Good stamina

Gandalfr runes (allow for the use of any weapon at least somewhat competently no matter how little you knew about it beforehand while also giving increased physical strength, usually double of what was originally there. Also enables faster reloading and better aim with all ranged weapons and a high level of competence in driving vehicles built for the purpose of war. Also allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

Modern infantry training (Gives even higher physical conditioning and allows for both better ranged ability with fire-arms as well as better close quarter abilities both unarmed, with bladed weapons and with rifles. +5 to melee attack, +10 accuracy with fire-arms)

Resistant to morale shocks

Gandalfrs steel conviction (When fighting for something or someone he fiercely believes in on the battlefield, it strengthens his morale to the point routing him is impossible, no matter what happens. Also, even when without a weapon of any kind the runes will activate, if he has a weapon they will double the usual bonus.)

Modern military training (Gives superior physical conditioning and a 50% higher capability with modern weapons/vehicles. Also allows to create improvised grenades and other explosives with greater ease. Also heightens ability with any and all fire-arms by +5 accuracy.)

 **Technological abilities**

Combat medic (Not in use yet due to 'modern medical supplies' not having been researched yet)

 **Traits**

Born to fight (+2 command when fighting on land)

Great general (+3 to command in battle)

Cool under fire (+1 to morale)

Courageous leader (+3 to morale)

Darling of the gutter press (+2 to morale)

Charismatic (+25% of chance of convincing people your argument is correct, -5% costs on supplies bought in bulk, +25% higher recruitment rate of troops for the  
faction this person is part of, +10% higher chance of opposing units surrendering in negotiations)

Historian (+10% chance to see pattern in actions when these are there, also knows a lot about 17th and 18th century strategies, logistics, tactics and production methods, +1 command against enemies using tactics that were recorded extensively in history, +2 command when fighting in command of such an army.)

Horsemanship (Is good enough at riding a horse that it doesn't diminish his/her combat capabilities while riding one)

Modern military officer's training (+2 command when on the defensive against a combined land/air assault due to extensive knowledge about how to quickly and effectively setup a trench based defensive system and how to make improvised Anti-Aircraft weaponry.

+1 command when using a combined arms assault while on the offensive. Lastly gives +1 command when in charge of an infantry force with fire-arms and artillery support, no matter how primitive or advanced said weapons and artillery are.)

Mentioned in dispatches (+1 morale, +1 to command when leading infantry units)

Multilingual (This person has the ability to speak more than 3 languages, both enabling easier diplomacy and giving him more prestige in the eyes of nearly every member of the population, though mainly so for the nobility. +5% chance of convincing people your argument is correct, +2 love from the nobility, +1 love from the lower classes, +5 diplomatic prestige)

 **** **Rumours of a royal lover (Rumours are that this person is in an unmarried relationship with one of royal blood, causing some positive attention from the common citizen but severe dislike from most members of the higher classes due to their disgust of him 'besmirching her honour'. +2 love from the lower and middle classes, -1 love from the nobility.)**

 **Requirements to recruit**

Special units are referring to specific people, the 'hero' units and leaders of their factions, which means that it is impossible to actually recruit them outside of personally convincing them to join your side over whatever group they are siding with now.

 **General Piet van Vlimmeren**

Category: Leader  
Class: General  
Men: 1  
Range: 70  
Accuracy: 70 (60 when on horseback, 80 when on foot with runes active, 70 when on horseback with runes active)  
Reloading skill: 60 (30 when on horseback, 70 with runes active on foot, 40 on horseback with runes active)  
Ammunition: 15  
Melee attack: 24 (36 with runes are active on horseback, 30 when on foot without runes active, 45 when on foot with runes active)  
Charge bonus: 15 (25 on horseback, 23 when runes are active on foot, 37.5 on horseback with runes active)  
Defence: 20  
Morale: 16 (24 when steel convictions becomes active)  
Recruitment cost: -  
Upkeep cost: £4 (spent on food, equipment and ammunition only)  
Command ability: between 10 and 17 command capability depending on the situation  
Army bonus morale: between +8 and +16 morale depending on the situation.

Piet van Vlimmeren is a 190 cm tall 37 year old veteran soldier from the Netherlands, who fought in a multitude of battles and was during his time of active service the second most capable close quarters combatant in the Royal Netherlands Military. He started military service at age 22 after finishing officers school at the top of his class, and fought in multiple battles during 3 tours in different warzones.

He left active service at the age of 30 after seeing his brother die trying to save several civilians, with said civilians still dying shortly afterwards despite all effort being put into having them survive because of an enemy RPG rocket hitting the building they were hiding in.

After returning home, he decided to instead join the reserve forces, where he was immediately granted back the rank he had when he left the active military, namely that of captain. After seeing the extremely poor state the reserve forces were in and how the general public treated returning military veterans, he decided to go into politics. Joining a political faction in his home-town, he quickly worked his way up the political ladder through both charisma and his popularity with the local public for being a straight-forward person and decorated military veteran.

Since the town was close to a military facility, many of the voters worked for/with the military or profited from the fact that they were stationed there in some way or another, causing the people to be more interested in the state of the military, their treatment by the general public and the quality of their equipment. From here after winning local elections by a large margin and being part of the town council, he joined national politics at age 35.

While less effective on a nationwide level, he still had gained enough public support that he was standing to gain 5 of the 150 seats in the _'Tweede Kamer'_ (second chamber, the name of one of the Dutch chambers of parliament) which would be just enough to make the victory of a coalition of 2 other parties a certainty, causing him to bargain with them.

The results of this would see him supporting them in their ideas for the most part, with him becoming Minister Of Defence and their support of his plans to spend more money to ensure all overdue maintenance on military equipment would be performed and new equipment bought where the old needed to be replaced badly.

After another political party that was also in negotiations with the coalition learned of this, they feared that their own party would not be allowed into the coalition because of them wanting much larger changes to the coalitions plans since with the seats of the new military oriented party they would be useless.

To counter this danger to their position they started a slander campaign, including leaking all Piet's medical files to the public while making speeches of him being a _''Bloodlustige man die het liefst ons land in oorlog zou brengen om het kleinste akkefietje.''_ (''Man filled with bloodlust, who would drag our country into a war over the slightest diplomatic problem.'').

This in combination of fear for how his PTSD would affect his abilities as part of the nation's leadership caused public support to crumble almost completely, both in national and local elections. At the actual elections he eventually didn't even get enough votes to get 1 seat in the new parliament, sending him into a depression and ruining his chances at the local elections a few months later.

The rival that started the whole thing also blackmailed the new minister of defence into revoking Piet's membership of the reserve forces for alleged mental instability, throwing him further into his depression.

With no family left and not wanting to ruin his body with drink, he dove into playing video games as his way of escaping his problems, eventually coming to enjoy strategy games, in specific those of the Total War series. While in this depression he was approached by Creative Assembly to work for them as a member of the team that would enact the movements for the troops in their new VR version of the original Empire Total War game, which he readily accepted to just have something productive to do on a daily basis.

After enjoying working for them for more than a year, he also took them up on the offer to join the testing teams for the VR gameplay, bringing him in as a military expert. Though after he had worked on the project for only slightly more than two weeks, he and 3 of his co-workers were teleported out of their VR chambers by way of a portal created by a young mage from another world.

However due to a combination of outside interference and the way that the VR machines worked, instead of just the 4 of them being transported to Halkeginia in their jumpsuits, they instead appeared with the clothing, gear and armies that they would have had in the VR session, which meant they were now commanding thousands of men armed and equipped with 18th century military gear in what seemed to be a medieval fantasy world.

He and his comrades have also gained a small bit of fame among the local populous for their combative capabilities, after they were able to defeat a group of mages in a four on four duel, albeit with one of the four being their summoner Louise de la Vallière instead of former Captain, now General, Steve Churchill.

 **Abilities**

Resistant to morale shocks

Can rally routing troops

Inspires nearby units

Modern military training (Gives superior physical conditioning and a 50% higher capability in operating modern weapons/vehicles. Also allows to create improvised grenades and other explosives with greater ease. Also heightens ability with any and all fire-arms by +5 accuracy.)

Modern infantry training (Gives even higher physical conditioning and allows for both better ranged ability with fire-arms as well as better close quarter abilities both unarmed, with bladed weapons and with rifles. +5 to melee attack, +10 accuracy with fire-arms)

Steel conviction (When fighting for something or someone he fiercely believes in on the battlefield, it strengthens his morale to the point routing him is impossible, no matter what happens.)

Very good stamina

Grappling hooks

Slightly degraded Gandalfr runes (These runes give half the bonuses that similar full runes would give to a person, in this case a 50% increase of physical abilities, half of the increase in ranged abilities but still give a high level of competence with controlling any vehicle meant for war. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

 **Technological abilities**

Fire and advance  
Fire by rank  
Square formation  
Platoon firing  
Socket bayonet

 **Traits**

Fought on the line (As this man was once a simple soldier fighting on the front line as well, his speeches make a much deeper impression on the men and inspire them more then the same speeches would from most other officers, especially those about the defence of their homeland against aggressor's. +1 morale in offensive battles, +2 morale in defensive battles, +1 to command in all situations.)

Modern military officer's training (+2 command when on the defensive against a combined land/air assault due to extensive knowledge about how to quickly and effectively setup a trench based defensive system and how to make improvised Anti-Aircraft weaponry. +1 command when using a combined arms assault while on the offensive. Lastly gives +1 command when in charge of an infantry force with fire-arms and artillery support, no matter how primitive or advanced said weapons and artillery are.)

War, war never changes (Due to a large amount of experience in warfare while on the frontlines himself, this man knows just how much it can affect the people fighting in it and will do anything in his power to assist his men into surviving the physical wounds gained and overcoming the psychological scars it creates. Both his own men and his allies know this and are proud to stand by this man's side all the more because of it. +1 morale to any and all friendly forces, +20% chance of having wounded soldiers survive the fighting)

Born to fight (+2 command when fighting on land)

Hero of the downtrodden (He will always fight for the rights of those that have very little or none, no matter the cost to him personally or what positions he will reach in life. This will oft cause him to class with the less scrupulous members of the Nobility. Gives +4 love from the working class/commoners, -2 love from the higher class/ nobility)

PTSD (Due to long-term experience with wars and the death of many friends, comrades and innocents in said wars, this person has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This causes him to be quick to anger not only when people have no respect towards the causes he and his comrades fought, bled and died for, but also when they look down on those that he feels have at some point gone through what he went through in some way shape or form. +4 love from others that have experience with war, -1 love from those not experienced with conflict, +25% chance of acting impulsively when people look down on him or any other soldier that fights for a cause he can respect.)

Courageous leader (+3 morale)

My enemy is the media (-1 morale due to past and present problems with the press)

Great general (+3 to command in battle)

Infantry commander (+1 command and +2 morale when leading an army mainly consisting of infantry forces into battle)

Shield of the innocent (After seeing civilians die in battle and being helpless to stop the slaughter, this man has resolved to never again be helpless in such a situation and will also inspire those under his command to follow that same ideal. Will activate when the opponent actively threatens the lives of innocent civilians. Gives +1 command, +6 morale for all friendly forces, +2 melee attack and +4 charge bonus for the entire army when active.)

Drillmaster (+2 to Command when leading Infantry Units, +5% to infantry unit's campaign movement range)

Good defender (+1 to command when defending on land)

Multilingual (This person has the ability to speak more than 3 languages, both enabling easier diplomacy and giving him more prestige in the eyes of nearly every member of the population, though mainly so for the nobility. +5% chance of convincing people your argument is correct, +2 love from the nobility, +1 love from the lower classes, +5 diplomatic prestige)

Hero of the Army (+4 to Morale in all Battles)

Mentioned in dispatches (+1 to morale in all battles, +1 to command when leading infantry units)

 **Requirements to recruit**

Special units are referring to specific people, the 'hero' units and leaders of their factions, which means that it is impossible to actually recruit them outside of personally convincing them to join your side over whatever group they are siding with now.

 **General Pierre D'Alain**

Category: Leader  
Class: General  
Men: 1  
Range: - (will change in the future, but currently doesn't have a ranged weapon)  
Accuracy: - (Normally 50 on average, with runes active 60 on average depending somewhat on the weapon)  
Reloading skill: - (Normally 30 on average, with runes active 40. How much higher or lower it will be depends near completely on the weapon used.)  
Melee attack: 18 (With runes active 27)  
Charge bonus: 20 (With runes active 30)  
Defence: 18  
Morale: 16 (24 when steel convictions activates)  
Command ability: 7 to 12 command general depending on the circumstances  
Army bonus morale: +6 to +8 morale

Pierre D'Alain is a 190 cm tall 42 year old former member of the French Grand Armée who reached the rank of sergeant, however he left the army shortly after his husband was killed in the line of duty. During his service he was a combat engineer and mechanic, which basically meant he built bridges, camps, roads, and everything else expected of a member of the engineer corps, but at the same time he had also enjoyed the training of a combat mechanic.

This meant that he could make quick repairs to vehicles, weapons and communication devices. This combination has assisted him well after he left the military at age 34, and after a short re-education started working as a mechanic for a car rental service in the outskirts of Paris.

Life was good for him, though he never fully got over the loss of his love, he did find peace in the act of caring for the children of his sister, with whom he kept a good bond. This changed however at age 41, when his sister, her husband and their two children died in a car accident.

Having lost everything he cared about threw him into a heavy depression, which got even worse when he lost his job not a month later after a change of management happened at the company he worked for, where it was decided to fire him and the other ex-military personnel employed there for them being too 'militant' for the new owners views, throwing dozens of men and women alike out of their jobs all over the country.

While in this depression, Creative Assembly reached out to him and gave him the option of becoming one of the field-testers for their VR technology, which he rapidly agreed to after reading the contract. He, unlike nearly all other members of the project, worked at the Rome Total War section first, and was placed over to the Empire Total War section after they finished the Rome Total War: VR Edition development.

Both the current and previous project have done much to drag him out of his depressed state, though he is still often cold and also very slow to trust. However after he had worked on the current project for only slightly more than two weeks, he and 3 of his co-workers were teleported out of their VR chambers by way of a portal created by a young mage from another world.

Strangely enough due to a combination of outside interference and the way that the VR machines worked, instead of just the 4 of them being transported to Halkeginia in their jumpsuits, they instead appeared with the clothing, gear and armies that they would have had in the VR session, which meant they were now commanding thousands of men armed and equipped with 18th century military gear in what seemed to be a medieval fantasy world.

He and his comrades have also gained a small bit of fame among the local populous for their combative capabilities, after they were able to defeat a group of mages in a four on four duel, albeit with one of the four being their summoner Louise de la Vallière instead of former Captain, now General, Steve Churchill.

 **Abilities**

Resistant to morale shocks

Can rally routing troops

Inspires nearby units

Modern military training (Gives superior physical conditioning and a 50% higher capability with modern weapons/vehicles. Also allows to create improvised grenades and other explosives with greater ease. Also heightens ability with any and all fire-arms by +5 accuracy.)

Steel conviction (When fighting for something or someone he fiercely believes in on the battlefield, it strengthens his morale to the point routing him is impossible, no matter what happens.)

Good stamina

Grappling hooks

Slightly degraded Gandalfr runes (These runes give half the bonuses that similar full runes would give to a person, in this case a 50% increase of physical abilities, half of the increase in ranged abilities but still give a high level of competence with controlling any vehicle meant for war. Also, like the original version it allows for psychic communication with the summoner.)

Mechanic (Can do field repairs on vehicles due to both military training and previous experience.)

 **Technological abilities**

Train the mechanics (Allows this person to train mechanics, currently not available due to there being no vehicles or other examples of modern/semi-modern technology to train them with)

Better machinery (25% increase of efficiency in machinery designed by him, with factory building speed also rising by 20%. Will only become active once installed as a province commander or researcher.)

 **Traits**

PTSD (Due to long-term experience with wars and the death of many friends, comrades and innocents in said wars, this person has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This causes him to be quick to anger not only when people have no respect towards the causes he and his comrades fought, bled and died for, but also when they look down on those that he feels have at some point gone through what he went through in some way shape or form. 

+4 love from others that have experience with war, -1 love from those not experienced with conflict, +25% chance of acting impulsively when people look down on him or any other soldier that fights for a cause he can respect.)

Mentioned in dispatches (+1 morale)

War, war never changes (Due to a large amount of experience in warfare while on the frontlines himself, this man knows just how much it can affect the people fighting in it and will do anything in his power to assist his men into surviving the physical wounds gained and overcoming the psychological scars it creates.

Both his own men and his allies know this and are proud to stand by this man's side all the more because of it. +1 morale to any and all friendly forces, +20% chance of having wounded soldiers survive the fighting)

Courageous general (+3 morale)

Born cavalryman (+2 command when leading cavalry units)

Aggressive general (+2 command when attacking)

Fought on the line (As this man was once a simple soldier fighting on the front line as well, his speeches make a much deeper impression on the men and inspire them more than the same speeches would from most other officers, especially those about the defence of their homeland against aggressor's. +1 morale in offensive battles, +2 morale in defensive battles.)

Superior General (+2 to Command in Land Battles)

Support crew (Due to being part of such a unit himself in the past, he knows how important support units are during combat and as such manages to get the best of the best for this job. +1 morale, +25% chance of being able to repair mechanised forces after a battle, wounded soldiers have a +10% higher chance of surviving the battle, +5% upkeep costs for all units)

Machines of war (Due to long term experience with modern vehicles, this man will be able to easily reverse engineer any vehicle baring even the slightest resemblance to modern vessels of war. This means that as long as one still semi-working example of a vehicle can be found, he can reverse engineer a lot of its technologies allowing them to build their own, if slightly inferior, versions of it.)

Hero of the downtrodden (He will always fight for the rights of those that have very little or none, no matter the cost to him personally or what positions he will reach in life. This will oft cause him to class with the less scrupulous members of the Nobility. Gives +4 love from the working class/commoners, -2 love from the higher class/ nobility)

Cunning General (+1 to Command during Ambushes)

Born to Fight (+2 to Command when fighting on land)

Multilingual (This person has the ability to speak more than 3 languages, both enabling easier diplomacy and giving him more prestige in the eyes of nearly every member of the population, though mainly so for the nobility. +5% chance of convincing people your argument is correct, +2 love from the nobility, +1 love from the lower classes, +5 diplomatic prestige)

 **Requirements to recruit**

Special units are referring to specific people, the 'hero' units and leaders of their factions, which means that it is impossible to actually recruit them outside of personally convincing them to join your side over whatever group they are siding with now.


	4. What is going on in Albion!

Empire of Zero part 4: How to deal with Orcs and just what the fuck is going on in Albion?

Authors note: Okay so making this chapter took a very long while, though this time around it was mainly due to the time I spent working on chapters for my other stories, damnit I had nearly forgotten how much of a pain it is to write a consistent time-line especially when you know while writing that most people won't actually read the damn thing… anyways a few house-hold notices before I post the disclaimer and go on to write the story.

Firstly, a general thanks to all reviewers of the story, your reviews give me inspiration for how to work on future chapters. Secondly, in this chapter I will try something a bit different than previous ones by showing things happening in the world outside of the Tristanian magical academy, though this will once again be a very long chapter so that will only be the first parts of it, the later half will, among other things, show Louise and company encountering problems in their quest to get a base for their armies. Thirdly, my thanks to all those that add themselves to the follow and favourite counts, they ensure I know people actually appreciate the story.

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the games in the total war franchise, nor do I own the show or the literary version of Familiar de Zero/Zero no tsukima. If I did this story (or the Familiar de Zero in general) would come out as a campaign map DLC for Empire Total war in the same way the warpath campaign map can be bought. Also probably would have Osmond spend more time in his cunning plotting mood on screen and less time using his perverted old man act to get people to consider him a non-threat.**

''Language''= Is regular spoken language in a language that comes natural to the person who's POV you are seeing the story through (Meaning one of the languages that they speak so fluently that at times they literally think to themselves in that language. And yes that doesn't have to be your birth language if you live with two or more languages being spoken near you consistently.)

 _''Language''=_ Text written like this means that it is a language not natural to the person, if the person can actually understand the language being spoken or not can be seen from whether it is written in cursive English (in that case they understand it) or in the cursive version of the actual language (meaning they do not understand it). For instance the character Piet van Vlimmeren can speak and read French fluently, however he hasn't mastered the language in the same way as he has Dutch and English. This means it will be written in cursive English. However if somebody were to speak to him in for instance Arabic, he just wouldn't understand it at all so it would be written down in cursive Arabic.

Language= Text written like this is a form of mental communication. For instance the whole VR to reality transition will cause the generals to develop slight psychic bonds with their troops and their communications will be shown like this. Not hive-mind level psychic connection, but closer to the level of Jean Grey connecting all X-men team members through their minds connection.

 **Language= Text written like this usually involves either a person trying to forcibly have another submit to their control through some kind of mental powers or secondly a mental command on how to act given to a person that is already under such control. Will also be used by both sides during mental battles or if truly supernatural powers are being used while the person chants the spells or just talks while exuding the power.**

 **With supernatural powers I don't mean regular magic, but instead anti-army spells, EMIYA showing up and deciding to turn the battlefield into his weaponized soul or Louise chanting to summon numerous individuals from another world while also granting the majority of them actual physical bodies, a soul, life and a free will. Or if in an omake a Gandalfr familiar takes control of a multiple kilometres long space ship and uses vocal commands/mental to control what the ship does.**

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World: Halkeginia, Location: The main work-chamber of Princess Henrietta in the Tristanian Royal Palace. Time: 20.00 hours local time on the day of the familiar summoning festival. POV: 3rd person.

In the room, princess Henrietta can be seen bowed over a desk looking at a report on the situation in the province of Les Mountagnes Rouge, trying to find a war on how to solve the issue. While normally she would simply have sent a large portion of the army that fell under the crowns personal command, the current situation with the civil war in Albion meant that the army was instead necessary to move to forward operating camps in and near areas that would form good landing zones for potential invaders, and while she could call upon the soldiers that the Nobility was required to drum up for the crown in the case of war, it would take close to a week if not more to gather a large enough number of those to win this battle without taking unacceptably large casualties.

Even then for those soldiers to move from their muster points toward a combined camp from where they could move to attack the orcs and liberate the province would take at least several more days after that. By that point in time not only would most of the region's population be dead, but the chances would be high that the orc tribe would either have heavily entrenched themselves or second option moved on to an entirely different region to raid.

On the other hand she could also call upon the palace guard and lead them in that battle herself, however that would cause the problem of forcing herself to be out of contact with the palace for several days or if she got wounded in the fighting potentially several weeks creating a golden opportunity for an invasion by either the Reconquista faction drunk off their ever more likely victory over the royal family of Albion or the Gallian mad king in his mad desires to get the resources to fight his 'holy war' against the elves.

A knock came from the door causing the princess to turn around. Moments later Elise d' Angleterre, a low ranking officer in her musketeer unit, opened the door. ''Your highness, my apologies for interrupting you, however a messenger arrived at the palace with a letter from one Louise de la Vallière addressed to you, do you want to read it now or should I put it in storage for you to read at another point in time?''

Upon hearing the name of the one that had written the letter the Princess's expression brightened and a small smile came to her face, causing her to reply as soon as the other woman had finished speaking ''Please hand it over now, I could use something positive to read from my old friend rather than these reports for a while.'' The guard nodded, headed in and gave the princess the letter, before bowing and walking out again.

As she unfolded the letter and started reading through it though, her facial expression changed multiple times between happiness, sadness and a steel determination and finally after finishing reading it she said to herself. ''Well Louise you have just handed me the solution to one current and potentially a number of future problems, however this might also cause even more of them in the far future.'' She filed her paperwork before heading out of the room.

''Elise, wake Agness and get her to organise it so that tomorrow morning at the light of dawn sixty mounted musketeer guards in full combat armament and my own horse will be ready to head towards the Tristanian Academy of Magic. Circumstances have forced the bi-annual visit to take place earlier than previously expected.'' She saluted and though somewhat confused raced towards the guard captains quarters. Meanwhile the princess turned towards the other four guards.

''The remainder of you come with me, if I am to visit the academy to converse with the leaders of an army that wishes to fight by our side I will have to impress upon them that I am the right choice, for that I will need the Royal armaments to be readied as quickly as possible.'' This caused the guards to only become even more confused, but they followed the princess nonetheless. Unknown to them a being outside of their perception of reality had gained a smile, happy for his young heir to already be making waves.

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World: Halkeginia, Location: Vallière Estate, the working chamber of Lady Karin de la Vallière. Time: 22.30 hours local time on the day of the familiar summoning festival. POV: 3rd person.

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At an end of the room, a beautiful pink haired but also physically imposing looking woman in her early forties can be seen sitting behind a desk reading some papers. She has a grim look on her face, a sheathed sword-wand on her belt and is wearing armoured riding gear, the type that scouts would use on reconnaissance missions on horseback or mage knights while training with Griffins and other flying animals. This woman is Karin The Heavy Wind, Tristain's greatest knight and the greatest terror of any that consider the country hostile. However her usual name is Karin de la Vallière, mother of three and Duchess of the de la Vallière lands.

While Karin de la Vallière is looking through the reports on the logistical situation of her armed forces she hears the harsh thuds of running footsteps through the hall, reflexively she unsheathes her sword wand, a whispered spell lifting all the papers off of her desks onto a specifically designed plank on another wall while a second spell moves the chair out of the way so it won't hinder her movement while the defensive charms on the desk are activated. This all happens in the bare two seconds it takes the other person to arrive at the door and knock on it. ''Who is it?''

The person on the other side of the door can be heard breathing heavily for a few moments before he replies to her question. ''It is Arnold, Milady. I have two urgent letters, one from your eldest and one from your youngest daughter, both delivered from the Academy of Magic, they arrived less than five minutes ago.'' Recognising the voice and the fact that no hostile action has been taken yet calms Karin somewhat, however now she looks somewhat confused since as far as she knew her eldest was supposed to be on a short trip with her new fiancée near Bruxelles for them to get to know each-other better while Louise should be getting to know whatever new familiar she had summoned.

She visibly steels herself for whatever madness might have caused this before she moves away from the desk towards the door. ''Come in Arnold and give me the letters please, I need to find out what has gone wrong this time.'' The man, Arnold, opens the door, steps in and hands the letters to her, before stepping out again and waiting in the hall, expecting a large amount of work soon.

Meanwhile back inside the room Karin de la Vallière has moved her chair back into its original position before sitting down on it behind the desk, opening the letter sent by Eleonore first. At first she seems to just get a headache as part of the way through the first page of the letter she can be seen rubbing her forehead and muttering ''Not again….'' Before shaking herself out of it and reading on. Then she gets first confused then angry only to calm herself before moving on to Louise's letter to find out just how much of Eleonore's version of events overlaps with the opinion of somebody that is less unstable than her heir.

This letter once again brings an expression of anger towards her face and once done with it she moves as if to storm out of the room and mount her griffin before charging straight towards the academy, only to realize both her daughters and everyone else involved will likely have long since gone to sleep. Instead she calms herself down again and moves to open the door. Once outside she turns towards Arnold ''Go and make it known that my Griffin is to be prepared for a journey from here to the academy at first sunlight tomorrow morning.''

After he moved away to comply with her order, she went to her bedroom, with both letters in hand, to not only inform her husband of the situation but also to work off her frustration at both the current events and the overall ineptitude of her heir.

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World: Halkeginia, Location: A road through a forest in Albion, with a convoy some 30 kilometres from the small port town of Liverpool. Time: 01.00 local time, the day after the familiar summoning festival. POV: 3rd person

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A small convoy of a single large carriage, though it is more a large cart with a roof and walls placed onto it, a single mounted man and two men on foot moves forward on the deserted road. An owl flies towards a young woman who sitting at the front of the cart next to a cloaked man that is holding the reigns of said cart. The man sitting on the cart moves one of his hands away from the reigns and takes aim at the bird, only for the now slightly smiling blond young woman to stop him.

''James, that is Mathilda's familiar, an owl that can find the location of a person as long as she knows their magical signature well enough to associate it with a name and face. You were already introduced to her before Mathilda left.'' Before turning towards the owl who is now sitting on her left, having perched herself on the small railing on the side, from where she is glaring at the now named James, who sighs.

''Tiffania, you do remember I've only seen her twice before this and that as such I cannot really see the difference between her and other potential owl familiars yet from a distance?'' After which he turns towards the owl that is still glaring at him, while Tiffania takes the small letter off of the owls leg before starting to read it. ''I apologize to you my feathered friend, and I thank you for delivering Mathilda's message to us. You also look good today.'' While still seemingly attempting to look angry, the owl was visibly pleased by both the compliments and the man's attention.

While this had been going on the small convoy had just been continuing down the road at the speed of the average modern leg infantry march (some 7 to 8 kilometres an hour for most countries, so I maintained that principle here.) now they ground to a halt as the two infantrymen felt while the cavalryman saw a slightly sobbing Tiffania hug James to her, squashing her rather large assets into the man doing so while repeating softly ''We're saved, we're saved!'', though with all of the men having some level of enhanced hearing, they heard her more than well enough.

After some time, during which the children in the back of the cart had noticed something was going on and had come out, they learned what was in the contents of the letter exactly and just why Tiffania was so overcome with happiness by them: A group of other people from what was most likely the world the men came from had been summoned to Halkeginia, this time to Tristain, a large professional army had been gained by no other than the daughter of Karin the Heavy wind, who promptly went on to beat her older sister and several other students in a duel, and while this was all happening the secretary had somehow managed to convince the headmaster and his second in command to join her in an attempt to convince both Louise de la Vallière, her new army of familiars and the crown of Tristain to go bring them to the safety of Tristain.

If this worked, they finally had a plan that all would agree to follow that would truly get them out. Originally the two men had proposed a different plan: James would use the power of his supernatural side in Danny Phantom to duplicate himself numerous times, capture and crew a frigate sized Reconquista ship with those duplicates then start a fight with the Reconquista making them believe a portion of their regional naval garrison had gone rouge, using other duplicates to take on their dragon-riders in close quarters while during the distraction Oliver would capture a small transport ship, load everyone onto it and head towards Tristain.

However Tiffania and the children hated the plan and convinced them to not go through with it because firstly to them it was uncertain if James, even as phantom, would actually manage to hold his own against an entire fleet causing them to fear for his life and secondly, if either a pirate or Reconquista ship managed to catch up to the fleeing ship the remainder of the group left with before it reached Tristanian air they would be little more than target practice, since outside of Oliver none of them had the slightest clue in how to handle canons or any powers truly useful in a naval battle.

Now as Tiffania was writing a reply to send back to her sister in all but blood, the cart was resting for a moment, while the men didn't watch out for a moment, causing their hoods to be blown back by a stream of wind. All four of them had black hair, while three had the exact same young face with a large scar across their left eye socket, with slightly glowing blue eyes, all seemingly cold as ice, the fourth had burning gold eyes and a burn scar taking up roughly a third of his face. It only lasted a moment before they pulled their hoods back up and luckily for them nobody outside of their own group had been near enough to see it.

Then the golden eyed man looks at the man holding the reigns of the cart and nods, causing a nod in return before he concentrates, creating two more duplicates whom then both head out into the forest to scout out the road and forest ahead of them, moving at speeds equal to those of a galloping race horse, while not disturbing even a single fallen branch or leaf.

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World: Halkeginia, Location: Headmasters Office of the Tristanian Magical Academy, Time: 8.30 local time or in other words an hour after Siesta walks in on Saito and Louise. POV: 3rd person

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The headmaster can be seen behind his desk writing down some notes before sighing, shaking his head and crossing off whatever he had been writing. He then turned towards his secretary who was worriedly working at her own desk. ''Any chance of you having a plan on just how to go about convincing the princess or the young Louise of assisting us in rescuing your family my dear?'' The green haired woman turns her head towards the headmaster, still slightly surprised by how different his behaviour is when not trying to give off the image of an old perverted buffoon.

She gives a sad sigh though and shakes her head to give her non-verbal negative confirmation. ''Sadly enough I don't. And even if we manage to make a plan, the chances of it actually working to convince both the crown princess and lady Vallière are very low, unless we reveal she is of the royal bloodline of Albion, and even then we would need to keep back the part about who exactly her mother is until they meet in person and hope Tiffania's innocent charm would win them over. And considering we're talking about a de la Vallière and a current Halkeginian head of state here I'm not all that optimistic about her chances on doing that.''

Just then the door was all but rammed open, with Jean Colbert storming through somewhat out of breath. ''Osmond, Karin is here!'' he huffed and puffed for a few moments before continuing ''She seems to be in full combat armour and is probably landing her griffin right now. How do we deal with this?!'' Both the headmaster and his secretary look surprised at this, though the headmaster seems more intrigued while the secretary is a more frightened surprise, both of them knowing the only reason that the Heavy Wind would come here on a griffin to be that she was either extremely angry or feared for the safety of her children.

''Well this might very well be our chance to convince her of the need to send somebody to retrieve your family and with Karin's resources she can easily enough get us the ships to both transport soldiers to there but also to get your family out of there.'' Both Mathilda and Jean look at him as if he's gone mad. The headmaster sighs before continuing ''Please just trust me on this for the moment, though Mathilda could you please go and get lady Louise here, I am unsure where young Eleonore is right now but since I do not want her to start a fight with Louise again we should probably only have one of them in the same room at any moment anyways.''

The secretary nods, before going through the door for Louise's room. Less than twenty seconds later the door is rammed open again, though this time a female figure walks through, some 180 centimetres tall, in enchanted Griffin Knight armour with long pink hair flying behind her and a sword-wand in hand. ''Osmond what the hell for kind of school are you running here that my daughters apparently have a duel after a familiar summoned by my younger daughter gets into a fight with my eldest?! Also what is this about Louise summoning an entire army of human familiars and you didn't even think of informing me about it?!''

''You see milady we spent a large portion of the afternoon negotiating with the soldiers summoned by your daughter, doing administrative work regarding them and ensuring the duel didn't get out of hand. By the time we actually had a moment to sit down and draw up a letter the messenger to the capital had already left, while his familiar raven with the letters to deliver to the main postal office in the Vallière lands had also already left. We had no way of contacting you before he returned outside of sending somebody to your lands ourselves, and since the situation had already cooled down we assumed we could just wait till tomorrow when the actual messenger and his raven would have returned here.''

The lady Vallière calms down a bit, her face showing that she considers the explanation at least somewhat reasonable. ''Now I wish to know two things.'' Both Osmond and Colbert look at her. ''Which of my daughters won the duel and does either of them have significant injuries? Can you get either of them up to this office so I can an explanation from either or better yet both of them in person?''

''Neither of your daughters was significantly injured and the duel was won by the group of your youngest daughter in less than a minute, it was quite interesting to watch. Her three summoned soldiers moved with speeds and agility that exceed the average line wind mage using the winds of fortune spell, the main reason the duel even lasted as long as it did being that they were restrained by the no killing rule of duelling. My secretary is already bringing your youngest up, and it would be best not to have both of them in the same room yet, your eldest is… let us just say afraid of petite pink haired teenagers and tall dark-haired commoners right now.''

This caused Karin to look on in surprise. ''My daughter and three commoner soldiers somehow managed to beat four mages including my eldest and a young man trained for years in elemental combat in a straight up duel? Without using lethal force and in less than a minute? And in such a way that my eldest is now completely frightened of my other daughter that she has been dismissing as any potential form of threat for years?!'' Both of the members of the teaching staff present give a confirming nod to this.

The two teachers then leave her to her thoughts for a moment while they watched her process this new information, though a knock on the door interrupts them before long, causing them all to turn towards it before a voice is heard through it. ''Headmaster, I'm here with Louise de la Vallière and general Saito de Hiraga. Can we come in or do you want them to wait outside for a moment?''

''Please do step in with the both of them Miss Longueville, it would be useful to have both of them in here immediately.'' As the door opens and Mathilda walks in, behind her follows a pink haired teenager that looks like a shorter, less physically matured version of Karin, or in other words Louise. She stops in complete shock upon seeing her mother, staring at her open mouthed. Behind her meanwhile, a young black haired man steps in before closing the door behind him, after which he turns around before stopping for a moment as he notices what is going on. This causes him to grimace before he moves in front of Louise while pulling out his sword and aiming it at Karin.

This stumps the teachers but the lady of de la Vallière looks at him coldly. ''And this is supposed to be the young man that took out the young Gramont in a duel?'' After this she turns towards Louise. ''Also daughter, just why did you think it a good idea to hire a number of mercenaries than act as if you had summoned an army? You and I both know you do not have the funds to maintain such an army and I will not pay for their upkeep, especially not if they all have as little in the way of manners as this young brute does.'' While saying this she is now fingering the sword-wand she has sheathed at her side.

Suddenly a harsh stomping could be heard through the halls before the door was shattered to pieces by a form charging through, with the Duchess only barely managing to bring up her sword-wand in time to deflect the first hit, nearly losing her wand before she used a wind hammer spell to throw her opponent away from herself, only for it to barely push the now revealed dark haired tall and scarred man of roughly her own age away from her. A fraction of a second later he was at her again, with the Duchess's strength, which was heightened heavily by an infusion of wind magic, being severely tested by the assailants raw physical strength.

Then, while her attention was on the blade, he kicked her left leg before using the moment of weakness caused by that to throw her out through the window that had already been broken by the shockwaves caused by their clashes, though while being thrown she used a triangle class wind pull spell to throw him out of it after her, before hitting him with a triangle class wind hammer, much more powerful than the line version she previously used to throw him to the ground harshly while levitating herself down towards the ground at a much less rapid pace.

Meanwhile back in the office Saito looked numbly before cursing and rushing out through where there was once a door, while the remainder of the group kept staring at where previously magically enhanced glass meant to be able to hold against musket fire and direct impacts of long range line-class spells had been. Then Colbert shakes his head, gathers himself and says ''We need to get down there, now, before one of them kills the other!''

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World: Halkeginia, Location: The Tristanian Magical Academy's courtyard. Time: the moment Karin de la Vallière lands from her fall off the tower. POV: Karin de la Vallière.

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Hmm that sheer physical strength this man possess makes it that anyone below a decently skilled triangle mage would have been dead by now, very interesting. My daughter wasn't exaggerating in her letter about their physical capabilities, the opposite in fact, she was vastly understating them. Though I do not understand how in the world that simple taunt brought out such anger from this man, nor that he somehow knew what was going on even though he wasn't in or even near the room?

Also the magic resistance he seems to possess, that can be very easily used to both his and my daughters advantage. Now I do need to put him in his place to make him realize that I am in charge when it comes to my daughters affairs, not he and his fellow familiars. Walking up towards the dust where the probably unconscious man should lie I use some detection magic on the area to determine his condition and feel .. no not a body, instead there's only air… and now I'm tumbling along the ground before I put myself to a stop with a quick airwall. Standing up I see him moving towards me, worse for wear but still very determined and far from defeated.

 **''YOU WILL NOT HARM HER!''** Is all he says before he charges at me again, causing me to form a wind wall in front of me by reflex only for him to break through it, barely managing to jump out of the way of the hit, which causes a several metres large and at least a metre deep crater in the ground. If that had hit me, even with this spell armour survival chances would have been extremely low.

Sending my signature spell gives birth to tornado like winds, throwing him back towards the walls of the academy, smashing him into them. As I stop the winds for a moment to ensure there is a good chance of him remaining alive for questioning, I see him stand up again, somewhat slow this time around, but still certain. I aim my wand at him only to hear a warning from the other side. ''Don't even think of it child abuser.'' As I turn slightly I see a man aiming a musket at me, this one also a tall dark haired man but with a blue uniform. On his flanks other similarly uniformed soldiers are forming up, aiming their muskets at me.

''Steve, you still alive?'' He yells at the man I had just taken down, whom gave an affirmative answer in return. ''So Ms. Vallière please tell me why me and my men shouldn't just open fire at you for abusing your daughter so harshly she froze and was completely overwhelmed with fear at the very damn sight of you?! Give us one reason why we shouldn't take revenge in her name?!'' What, they started this because they thought I abused my own flesh and blood to some extreme amount?

Just then the young man from the office came storming into the courtyard before he took in the situation and called out. ''Piet stand down, Louise wasn't actually frozen by her specifically or her words, she froze because as far as she knew her mother being there in her armour meant that either Tristain had come under attack or that she was going to be pulled out of the academy.'' He made placating gestures to both the soldiers and myself after this. ''We should all calm down a bit and take this confrontation back inside to the headmasters office.''

''How can I be certain that none of you will attack me once more while we are inside there?'' I posed the question mainly to test the waters, I don't expect they will actually do anything against me again since if so they would just start it out here in the open where they can actually use their superior numbers and muskets against me. Especially with that strange formation they just formed up, a semi-circular double line formation in my direction with both lines being able to fire at me? While reloading might be less easy in that way, it would provide a decent enough way to deal with charging infantry or cavalry, though I doubt it would do much against aerial combatants.

''If you stop behaving so similarly to the piece of shit that killed her own daughter in a fit of anger at my little girl not doing what she wanted fast enough then I will not have to spring into action to defend another child from a similar mother.'' It was said by this Steve in a very growling tone but… that information… his 'little girl'… his wife killed their daughter in what he considers as little more than a fit of anger, but she behaved similarly to said child as I did to Louise when testing her resolve… now his reaction is far more understandable. I might even forgive his behaviour if he can keep calm for now, though I do need to watch out with these men my daughter summoned.

I would have to rebuke him though. ''That 'behaviour' as you called it was simply a test of my daughters and her familiar's resolve and though you showed it very strangely the fact that you were willing to fight in her defence with no hesitation shows good things.'' Then I fully turned to him while stepping closer and looked him in the eye, which was somewhat of a strange experience since I had seen he and his companion were tall, but I hadn't seen just how tall they were, at least a hand taller than me which meant that while normally I could use my height to look down on people, now such a same sort of height advantage was being used against me.

''Keep those tests to yourself for the remainder of the time being, or we might very well conclude it is a form of psychological warfare against the young lady and be forced to draw weapons upon you in her defence.'' Just then I could see Colbert arrive into the courtyard out of the corner of my field of vision, he looked around frantically only to see what was happening and likely coming to the conclusion the situation had calmed down somewhat already. Behind him my daughter, the headmaster and his secretary filed in, though my daughter wasn't surprised the situation had calmed down already unlike the other two? Did she know already? And if so, just how?

A young man came riding in from the gate of the academy, moving over to Osmond the moment he noticed the man was in the courtyard. ''Headmaster, sir, a cavalry brigade, bearing the banner of royal family is heading in our direction, they will arrive in less than ten minutes.'' Osmond nodded to the young man.

''Thank you, go fetch both yourself and your mount something to drink and something to eat.'' Then he turned around towards where I and the two men were still standing. ''Lady Vallière, general Van Vlimmeren, General Churchill, if you would all be so kind as to postpone any remaining hostilities until after we've received the group heading towards us now, the princess is most likely among them as she did send us a letter indicating she would arrive at some point in time this morning.'' As this was said I can see my daughter gasp in the background seemingly very unsure of herself before the young man at her side steadies her with a hand on her shoulder and a smile aimed at her. Her return smile is looking quite a bit too affection filled for a young lady with an ongoing betrothal contract, I will have to talk to her about this later on.

World: Halkeginia, Location: Courtyard Tristanian Academy of Magic. Time: 8.45 local time. POV: 3rd person

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As the royal mounted musketeer brigade moves into the courtyard their path is surrounded by a honour guard of men in blue uniforms, muskets with bayonets equipped in parade hold over their shoulders. At the end of this honour guard, the headmaster stood together with the available members of the Vallière family, Colbert and several other faculty members while the Generals stood more to the side, with the exception of general Piet, who was in command of the honour guard troops and thus among their ranks.

While the first ranks of mounted musketeers looked around somewhat surprised at how they are received, they shrug and move on to the front, though somewhat wary of the unknown soldiers, Karin the Heavy Wind and her family are nearby, the most loyal members of nobility in the country. Most of the musketeers think these men are simply foreign expatriate forces, having fled either Albion or Gallia, now looking to serve under the Tristanian crown.

When the Crown Princess entered the courtyard on her horse, all the soldiers saluted simultaneously spooking the guards for a second before they realize what is happening is little more than a military salute of sorts that is unknown to them in origin. As the first mounted troops near the academy staff, the mounted troops part to make way for the princess to move forward. All of the dimensional travellers are stunned by the appearance, which is nothing close to what they had expected of a late medieval princess, even with Louise's faith in her leader.

While a beautiful young woman with long purple hair which they all knew to expect since Louise had told them about that, she is wearing a set of enchanted armour coloured a mix of silver and dark purple with a sword-wand by her side and a small crown in her hair, which Louise quickly informed them was essentially a magical version of a retractable helmet that had cost the Royal family a fortune to make centuries ago, instead of the expected dress and fine jewellery. So overall a far better first impression then the men had expected.

As the horse reached the group containing the Vallières and the teaching staff, they kneeled for her, causing her to say ''Stand, all of you. I will not stand on formalities, there are multiple situations that need to be handled quickly.'' While saying this she dismounted from her horse, with the group rising to stand before her. ''I will take four of my musketeer guard inside with me, please have a meal and drink brought for the remainder of them.'' The secretary exchanged a look with Osmond for a moment before she gives a hand signal to a nearby dark-haired maid whom, after giving a short bow, moves off towards the kitchens.

''I have several things that I myself and my staff need to discuss with you, so this would be fortunate. If you would please follow us to my office, your highness?'' She nodded and four of the musketeer guards near the front of the formation joined them, while Piet, Saito, Steve and two soldiers trailed after them, ensuring no one other than themselves was following the group. As they neared the door to Osmond's office, the two Blue Guards Dragoon soldiers took up positions next to the door while the generals checked up on the troops outside and how everything was going telepathically before they followed the other group into the office.

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World: Halkeginia, Location: Headmasters Office at the Tristanian Academy of Magic, Time: 8.50 local time. POV: 3rd Person.

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As the generals file into the room, the crown princess looks on from the head of the hastily setup large table with a map of Halkeginia spread out over it. ''So I assume these are the commanding officers of the troops summoned by my dear friend Louise?'' She looked at Louise after saying this, who both nodded and verbally confirmed it with a ''Yes your majesty.'' As the men formed up in a line, with Piet being in the centre, Saito on his right hand side and Steve on his left hand side. ''Could you introduce yourselves, gentlemen?''

The three of them exchanged looks before both of the other men nodded to Piet, mostly for show since they had already decided this in a previous telepathic discussion. ''Your highness, my name is Piet van Vlimmeren, I am the commanding officer of the local army of the Seven United Provinces, which is roughly a fourth of the overall strength of the combined army summoned by Louise de la Vallière, on my right is Lord Saito Hiraga,'' At this the royal heir and her guards turned to watch the younger man,

''the commanding officer of the local army of the British Empire, also roughly a fourth of our overall strength. On my left is Steve Churchill, commanding officer of the local army of the Papal States, also in charge of a fourth of our strength. Meanwhile the last fourth is the French Imperial army under command of Pierre D'Alain, whom is outside ensuring our armies currently have a high ranking officer with them in case something happens.'' The crown princess looks thoughtful and nods at this.

''Thank you for the introductions ser van Vlimmeren, I had read in Louise's letter that she and you four had been gathering a force to relieve the _Mountagne Rouge_ province?'' at this she got nods from all three of the generals, causing her to turn towards Osmond. ''You mentioned outside that you also have other business that needs to be dealt with?'' The aged headmaster nods at her in confirmation. ''Could you explain exactly what said problem is?''

''To explain the situation that we would like assistance with from both the Tristanian crown as well as if possible the armies of the Vallière family, I would first need to give some context. Is it alright if my secretary explains this in my stead?'' Both the Duchess and the crown princess are visibly surprised at this but the princess still nods causing the headmaster to lay a re-assuring hand on the secretaries shoulder. ''Your majesty I am not really called Longueville like the headmaster claimed, my real name is Mathilda Saxen-Gotica, which is important to this case because as you probably knew my parents were sworn to the younger brother of King James of Albion. What you probably didn't know is that he had a wife and child, but that he kept it hidden from even his own brother out of fear that King James would kill them.''

Seconds later the implication of what Mathilda thought of why said younger brother to the king of Albion had suddenly disappeared more than a decade ago was very clear to all of them. The princess sprung up at this, enraged. ''How dare you accuse King James of this! My uncle would never do something like that to his own brother!'' Seconds later two of her guards began pulling up their muskets to take aim at the secretary.

Now it was Mathilda's turn to become enraged. ''You little bitch! I was there, in a closet hiding with his young daughter inside my arms while her mother went out to confront them after they had already killed not only the prince but also my parents, with us fleeing out through a hidden exit once they had left the general area believing her to be the only one there. I was the one that had to hold the young girl and console her about just why strangers had killed her mother and father after calling her mother, the most caring woman I know, a demon just for the race she was born into, while her father and my parents, all good people were called demon worshippers for actually caring for both Tiffania and her mother!'' By the end of this tears could be seen rolling down the woman's face, before she was pulled into a slight hug by Colbert into who's shoulders she started crying.

The whole room with the exception of Osmond and Colbert where completely floored by both this revelation and the woman's reaction in general. ''I apologise for her reaction, but after what research I could do into the situation it turns out that at the very least the broad lines of her story are true.'' The old man let that sink in for a moment before he continued. ''Which brings us to the current issue: the young Tiffania is currently trying to flee from Albion, however she is being chased by a group allied to the Reconquista, while the only nearby port from which she can actually leave the floating island is in the hands of a Reconquista garrison, with only a relatively small force on the ground, however with a decent sized flotilla defending it in addition to there being a militia training camp less than ten miles from the city where they could drum up to a thousand men from, which means that even if most of those men are only half-way trained, that anything outside of a full invasion army would have a very large amount of trouble doing anything in the area.''

After taking all of it in for the moment and looking around the room, seeing that outside of the Academy staff everyone is as surprised as her, Henrietta turns towards the secretary. ''While I have my doubts that my uncle was the one who ordered the attack on his own sibling, I can more than understand wanting to free a loved one from the hell that is the current state of Albion.'' Then she turns towards de Duchess Valliere and Louise. ''In addition freeing a member of the Royal family of Albion will give us a good rallying cry against the Reconquista in the near inevitable war that will start sometime soon as it would lower their credibility as the true rulers of Albion, albeit not by much considering they would still hold the floating continent itself.''

Now the Princess took a deep breath, thought for a moment before turning towards Mathilda again. ''Now I am very interested, however just what is your plan on freeing them? And what role would you wish for the Crown and the de la Valliere families to play in it? Because at the same time we still have to handle the issue of orcs taking over a province. We need to spare at least some 800 men to deal with the combination of the orc forces and with the aftermath of the orcs having occupied the region.''

''There will be relatively few ground forces needed, at most 150 soldiers, to deal with the problem in Albion. Louise here is not the only one that summoned human familiars, so did Tiffania, however of them one is seemingly a mage able to cast wandless fire magic, while the other is a demi-spirit that can shift into a spirit form able to use a strange form of magic. The two of them combined can take on a small army, especially if they have the element of surprise.'' Louise and the generals share a look before nodding to eachother, which is noticed by the Duchess de la Valliere.

''Louise, dear…'' She says in a somewhat chillingly friendly voice that immediately makes Louise go rigid while the generals palm the handles of their swords. ''Could you please explain to us why it seems to be that you and your summoned soldiers recognise this person and have come to some sort of silent decision?'' This silences the room, with all the locals looking at Louise with interest, especially Mathilda, who is uncertain of just how the young noble would be able to know who Tiffania was.

''Well… ehm you see…'' Louise stammers out before taking a deep breath and righting herself while Saito had walked up behind her without the others in the room noticing giving her silent support with a hand on one of her shoulders, giving her the extra confidence needed to go on. ''Back in that moment where myself and my familiars suddenly gained such a large headache, the runes gave me some information on other nobles that had summoned human familiars. It gave relatively little in the form of their full titles or additional capabilities, however with the addition of my familiars knowledge about some of the summoned beings both myself and my soldiers will be able to recognise them on sight.

For instance, the girls name is Tiffania, she has blond hair and a very… generous figure. She also runs the small orphanage she lives in as if the children there were of her own flesh and blood. There are other groups of human familiars that have been summoned, however except for one they are not, or at least should not be involved in this situation. The one that might be involved is the one we got the least amount of information on as they are somehow shielding themselves from the influence of whatever magic allowed me to see them in the first place.'' After she was done explaining she turned towards Steve. ''You are the one trained most in handling similar situations general Churchill, might you be able to come up with a plan on how to deal with this?''

He walked over to stand closer to the table before turning towards Mathilda. ''Do you possibly have a somewhat detailed map of the area?'' She nodded, walked over to the cabinet and pulled out the topmost map, it having most likely already having been used shortly ago to check out the last details. ''Thank you. Also this town here close to the centre of the map with a river going through it is the target right?'' She nods again at this. He looks around on the map for a while, searching for any nearby location they might be able to pick the people up at farther away from the port, sadly enough not finding any.

Then he looks closer to the port and sees something. ''Okay so this large area is a relatively flat plateau that is elevated a decent amount over the flatlands below it in which the town is located right?'' The secretary looks at the area on the map he was pointing towards before nodding. ''Hmm while not large enough that more than a single decent sized ship of the line would actually be able to land it is more than enough for the ships to get close to the ground and then simply have the troops rappel down along ropes from decent sized transport ships while a single ship remains in the open ground for the elfin woman and civilians to get onboard along with some of the soldiers before it rises to allow a second smaller ship to land with the first giving covering fire to the troops that would then be boarding their ship.''

Karin stands up and looks over the spot on the map the general is pointing towards. ''Not a bad plan, however now comes the harder part: how to deal with the hostile navy? A port town of this size will have at least five or six airships guarding it, with the flagship being a ship-of the line. This in addition to the fact that we can't send over ships that would be identified as part of either the Tristanian navy in general or the Valliere family flotilla in particular make it near impossible to actually send anything strong enough to challenge these people into it.''

At this the headmaster speaks up. ''Theoretically speaking this is the case yes, however currently in practical terms of the six ships there, four are damaged and being repaired in port. While well repaired enough that they could be made combat ready within an hour, possibly even less, however this is where the familiars of Tiffania come into the picture. With the enchantments on the ships being turned off for the repairs to be made while in the docks, the ships will be far more vulnerable to fire than normally would be the case. This in addition to the fact that her other familiar can both duplicate himself and use his strange magic to make himself and others temporarily invisible and incorporeal as long as he is not intending on fighting nor is the other exerting much energy, this means that they can go in and set fire to most of the docked ships, making it impossible to get them combat ready at any point in time.

The problem, and the reason they haven't done this beforehand is very simple on this front: there is a quick reaction flotilla located slightly more than an hour away from the port, meaning that they would have far too little time to commandeer themselves a ship afterward and make enough distance for an enemy to not catch up on them. One of the being repaired ships is the official flagship, making the situation even easier. The main problem will be getting in and out before the quick reaction flotilla arrives to put a stop to it, making speed of the essence. With both crown and Valliere family funds, a number of ships could easily be bought, we have the ground troops, now it would simply be the problem of actually manning the ships.''

At this Louise spoke up. ''Actually we might have a solution on that, a number of troops from Lord Hiraga's and van Vlimmeren's armies are naval infantry, and as such know how to handle sailing the ships. The only thing that we would need to put somebody on the ships for is the handling of the wind-stone, as none of them have ever had to perform such a task. Additionally they have some weapons that could be used to fight off any smaller faster hostile air-forces such as enemy dragon or griffin squadrons, they call these machineguns.'' The eyes of the locals went to Louise while she was speaking before looking to the officers for confirmation on the subject, which was given.

At this it was Henrietta that spoke up. ''Alright that is the planning of that scenario dealt with, and everyone knows what to do?'' All answered in the affirmative to this. ''Okay now how to deal with the orc threat. How many troops are your armies intending on sparing for this? And how much of that would be infantry, artillery or cavalry?''

The generals shared a look before Saito spoke up. ''I will take over on this point as it will be generals van Vlimmeren and Churchill that will deal with the situation in Albion as they have the most experience in similar situations. I meanwhile will be leading the troops against the orcs, along with Miss Valliere. I will have 320 men in two units of line infantry regulars, 480 men in three units of militia troops supporting them that afterwards will be permanently stationed there, while I will also have 12 canons and 72 crewmen for those canons spread out over three different units.

To top it off I will have three cavalry units and a single marksmen unit, with the cavalry totalling 114 soldiers while the marksman unit will contain 80 soldiers. This means that our total troop number, excluding myself and miss de la Valliere, will be some 1065 soldiers to relieve the region. Our main plan was to link up with what remains of the local militia, get more information on what the orcs have been doing exactly and so forth before moving our main army and the artillery against the orcs main encampment while I will send out one of the cavalry units supported by the marksmen and one of the militia units to take out any patrols, raiding parties or secondary camps that the locals have noticed.''

The current heir to the throne looked around the room to see if anyone disagreed with the idea, which they did not, with Karin and Agness both giving their silent approval through a nod to the princess when she looked at them. ''As long as you supply the troops and sailors, we can easily get you six ships to do this within the next twelve hours. This should be enough to carry up to roughly 720 people, crew included. Of these ships one or two will not have all that many canons or other weapons. Will that be enough?''

Looks are exchanged, before both Van Vlimmeren and Churchill both nod. ''That should be enough to get us down on the ground while the hostile ships should be kept busy without too many problems, while our ground troops will be numerous enough to hold off the hostiles until the refugees can board. However our main problem will be if the enemy manages to get in re-enforcements faster than we expect, as the refugees are being chased, likely by the human familiars we know little about.''

The princess turned towards Louise. ''Can you tell me what you do know about these familiars? How many of them are there for instance? Is it a military force like your allies, or are they more of a large workforce? Do any of them have the abnormal physical capabilities similar to your own familiars?'' Louise thought for a moment before replying.

''These other human familiars are in far lower numbers than my own, a hundred or so at most. However that will be one of the few advantages we'll have over them, with possibly also far less supernatural physical capabilities attached to their leaders. The problems however start after that, since while my troops are well-trained and equipped as well or better than any regular soldier from our own or any other national army, to them this is centuries old, antiquated weaponry. Meanwhile the opponent is armed with weapons that they consider close to modern.

To give an example of just how devastating this can be in a battlefield: in the simulations my soldiers went through, they did one just to test the devices to their full capacity, where+ they gave the four generals modern weapons and equipment, while putting them against 500 of their troops armed similarly to those currently stationed outside. The 500 won the battle eventually as should logically be assumed with a situation like this, but with only 20 men remaining, half of which were wounded, and even then in part because the generals had limited ammunition for their weapons on a combat map smaller than the maximum range of their weapons, which eventually forced them to try to change the battle into a close quarters fight where numbers started to count far more. The quality differences will not be as extreme weapon wise with these enemies as it was in that battle, however they will still be significant enough that even with a 10 to 1 advantage victory will be uncertain if the enemy is dug in defensive positions that they had more than a few minutes to prepare.''

Henrietta looked worried, which she was, both at the sheer technological difference and how dangerous a battle between her friends familiars and those of the other mage would be. ''Are you certain this force you will be taking with you will be enough for this mission? If the enemy truly can perform so much better than any of our own troops, isn't it too much of a risk?''

The generals seemed to give a collective sigh while Louise looked troubled. ''Sadly enough we have little other choice, if we don't move to support now Reconquista will have strengthened their position in Albion as its ruler, instead of now when there's still organized resistance and direct combat with royalist forces in other regions meaning that 'in control' regions such as this will have far fewer soldiers to hold them. In a few months they will likely have close to double this number in all towns, with a far higher chance of the actual familiars being stationed in a quick reaction location, meaning that instead of a chance of meeting them in battle, we will certainly be forced to fight them.

The princess sighed in return. ''I will have to send one of my confidantes along with your group to ensure they can handle in the name of Tristain.'' She turned towards her guards. ''Any volunteers?'' All of them looked between eachother for a moment before raising their hands. The princess sighed once more, before looking towards Agnes. ''You'll be the most suited to this job Agnes, as you know me best and also have some experience with stealth and undercover work.'' She turned towards generals Van Vlimmeren and Churchill ''I trust her safety to the two of you, while she is a good person she has the issue of getting in over her head sometimes.'' In reaction to the princesses straight faced declaration, Agnes let out a shout of 'Hey!' which was ignored by all other inhabitants of the room, while two of the musketeer guards started coughing in a way usually meant to hide laughs, making it very obvious exactly what they thought of the situation.

General van Vlimmeren stepped forward and bowed slightly while holding his hand on his heart. ''I will defend her with my life if need be your majesty, I do so swear.'' The earnest proclamation took the princess of guard but also caused satisfaction to well up within her.

''Good. Now for the campaign against the Orcs. I am going with you on that one, there will be no debate about this.'' This brought on looks from the seated members of nobility with Louise quickly reacting ''But your highness, that would be far too dangerous for you to do?! If anything happens we will be without a competent royal heir and…'' she continued in a much softer voice ''I do not want to lose one of my few friends…'' Everyone at the table was nearly as surprised by this declaration as the previous one from the princess, though it caused said princess to look at Louise very fondly.

Jean Colbert cleared his throat causing everyone to turn towards him. ''While it might be a dangerous task miss Valliere, with the large and competent professional army surrounding her and against an opponent like the orcs whom barely make more use of military tactics than the average wild beast, this is the safest way for the Queen to get viewed as a capable military commander by the general populace, and the commoners especially will love her for putting an end to a group of raiding barbarians like this. We might very well need said popular support in the near future to rally the nation against an outside invasion with the way the civil war in Albion is going. We are likely to be the next target of a group like Reconquista to get themselves a foothold on the mainland of the continent.''

The younger Valliere sighed and nodded her ascent to the idea, at which the Princess looked around the room once more. ''Is there anything further that needs to be discussed?'' Almost everyone in the room shook their heads. ''Alright then, Agnes go with the generals van Vlimmeren and Churchill and get to know them a bit better while also assisting them where you can, Louise, general Hiraga, I have much to discuss with the two of you in a more private session.'' Everyone nodded and filed out of the room.

 **And the end of this chapter. Alright I admit I am an arsehole and should have probably gone on to the actual battles, the problem is that I wanted to keep this chapter under 15k. Both battles have at least 6k words to them, and this chapter is already close to 11000 words. I would then have to cut them in half at a cliff-hanger moment, which would be even more of a problematic move. I apologize for this taking so long, between being busy with the other story, work related issues (I've had three different jobs in the time it took to write this chapter), health issues and family related issues, I've had very little time to write on this.**

 **I hope you guys liked it, please review on what you did and didn't like so I can improve, but please do not flame or only say something is bad without the reason why, that would give me little in the way to help me improve.**


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